Lessons Of The Heart
by cassi0peia
Summary: *Now Complete* When Ginny Weasley catches Draco Malfoy doing something he shouldn't be, she blackmails him to teach her to fly. But will they both learn a lot more?
1. Chapter One

-1_**A/N: This book was written pre-OOTP, so it's definitely not completely canon anymore. Yes, I'm aware that Blaise Zabini is not a girl. Please stop telling me. As this was written over four years ago, there are a lot of inaccuracies. Please try to enjoy it for what it is and happy reading…**_

"And Ron Weasley blocks another shot for the Gryffindor team! Wow, he's really on a roll today!"

"Go Ron!", Ginny Weasley jumped up and screamed, cheering for her big brother. Hermione Granger, who was next to her cheered as well, but went quickly back to a thick book in front of her - _she _had an Arithmancy test in two days. "Hermione, how can you read a book at a time like this?"

Hermione glanced up at the redhead and shrugged. "I guess I just know how it's going to end," she replied with a wicked smile on her face. "After all, we haven't lost to Slytherin in the seven years I've been here."

Ginny had to admit that she had a point. The Gryffindor team was awesome - surprisingly they had recovered from the graduation of almost all of their players two years before. The Slytherin team on the other hand…well, it was really no contest, even with the every Slytherin riding speedy Accelerina Maximas, the fastest brooms in the world. But still - Ginny loved watching them soar through the air on their broomsticks. It was like they were doing some wild, intensively choreographed dance, one she realized wistfully that she would never be able to do.

It wasn't for lack of trying…it was just that she was _scared_. She had never really got the hang of turning and swerving - or landing for that matter - all of which made for a less than desirable set of skills for a wannabe Quidditch star.

Suddenly excited squeals pierced the air even more loudly than before and Ginny looked up to see a crimson blur, followed closely by an emerald wisp go flying by. Harry had obviously seen the Snitch and was after it, Draco Malfoy hot on his trail. A moment later it was all over as Harry sailed up, the golden snitch grasped in his hand.

His teammates and many Gryffindors stormed the field, including Hermione, but Ginny stayed put, watching in fascination as Madam Hooch collected the Bludgers (which put up quite a good fight) and the Quaffle, doing all this as she rode easily on a broomstick.

Ginny closed her eyes and imagined being able to fly so fast she'd be jus a blur, to be able to throw a ball past a Keeper and to hear the crowd roar, to feel the cool Golden Snitch in her palm…She was so wrapped up in her little fantasies that she didn't even realize that the stands had completely cleared out.

Startled, she jumped to her feet and started down towards the exit. Suddenly she stopped, sniffing the air. Something smelled…odd.

Out of curiosity, she kept walking until the smell was so powerful that she coughed, trying to clear her windpipe. A sudden scrambling was heard to her right and she turned just in time to see a tall, blonde figure, half hidden in the shadows under the stands, clad in green remove something from his mouth and crush it under the heel of his dragon-hide Quidditch boot. Her eyes traveled up and suddenly she felt as if someone had plunged an icicle into her heart as her eyes met an icy, gray gaze.

"Malfoy," she stammered, trying to sound vindictive, but only succeeding in sounding shaky and intimidated. It wasn't that she was _scared _of Malfoy - not _Draco _Malfoy - but his eyes were so cold that she felt as if she had no right to be there whatsoever.

"Weasley," he replied, crossing his sinewy, muscled arms over his chest. "What did you see?"

Ginny stared at him, wondering what on Earth he was talking about and then remembered his sudden surge of activity. "What did you have in your mouth, Malfoy? And what was that smell?"

Malfoy sneered. "I wouldn't expect you to know, Weasley," he said in a cold, drawling voice.

Ginny stared back at him, hoping she didn't look too scared. "I know exactly what that was, Malfoy," she finally replied. "Cigarettes are illegal at Hogwarts, Malfoy."

Malfoy looked startled, then quickly recovered, a small smirk playing at the edge of his lips. "Cigarettes? Right. Well, what do I have to do to keep you from telling anyone about this, Weasley?" She didn't reply and Malfoy sighed impatiently. "Look, I know you're just going to run back to the castle and tell Dumbledore, but I really can't afford to get kicked out of Hogwarts six months before graduation, so what do you want? You want money?"

Ginny stared back at him, her mind racing. This was all happening too fast. She had information to blackmail Malfoy? This was good stuff! What could she get from him? She didn't want his dirty money - Merlin knew where _that _came from. She looked around and her eyes landed on Malfoy's broomstick. He followed her gaze and his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"No way, Weasley, you can't have my broom," he said, shaking his head adamantly. "I can't afford to go buy another one and people would suspect something."

"I don't want your stupid broom, Malfoy," Ginny snapped, an idea forming in her head. "I want you to…teach me to fly."

Malfoy's eyebrows shot up again. "Teach you to fly? Haven't your three million older brothers done that?"

Ginny shook her head and Malfoy sighed deeply, contemplating the situation. "I guess I have no choice," he murmured. He truly looked pained. "How many lessons?"  
"Enough that I can make the house team in March," Ginny replied, thinking of the upcoming tryouts.

"Do you have any experience?," Malfoy asked, looking wary.

"Some," Ginny replied indignantly. "I took basic classes first year, just like everyone else."

Draco groaned and looked impatiently at her. "Okay, fine," he finally snapped. "Meet me here - tomorrow, after dinner. You have to swear you won't tell anyone though. Not even about these lessons."

"I won't tell anyone," Ginny said quietly. Her exterior was meek and calm, but inside she was doing jumping jacks. Sure, Malfoy was no prince, but he _was _a good flyer. And with this secret to hold over him, he wouldn't do anything to hurt her intentionally. She would make the Gryffindor Quidditch team in March - and Harry Potter would _finally _notice her.

---

The next day seemed to drag on forever for Ginny Weasley. She jumped out of bed as soon as her alarm sounded and hurried down to breakfast. Her classes that day - Transfiguration, Potions, and Care Of Magical Creatures seemed to be twice as long as usual - and she found herself staring longingly at the Quidditch Pitch while Hagrid was giving his lecture on Fire-Crabs.

The only negative thing about this was that she was going to have to get the lessons from Malfoy, who would undoubtedly spend the majority of the lesson making fun of her flying skills and cracks about her being a Weasley. She decided early on that she would just ignore him. As much as she could while he was teacher her, anyway.

Dinner came after what seemed to be the longest day of Ginny's life. She gulped down a glass of pumpkin juice and pocketed a couple of rolls, then excused herself from the table.

"Ginny, where are you going?," Ron mumbled, his mouth full of kidney pie.

"Need to finish an assignment," she replied, hoping that he wouldn't catch her in her lie. "See you later."

She hurried up to the dormitory and changed into some of her older robes and grabbed her broom - Ron's old Shooting Star, which he had given her after Harry had given him a Nimbus 2002 for Christmas the year before.

Walking onto the Quidditch Pitch, she looked around, suddenly worried that Malfoy wouldn't show. It was still early though, she realized, and sat down on the cold ground and waited.

Fifteen minutes later she heard the crunch of grass under foot and saw a dark shape coming towards her, walking with a slow, sauntering gait. Definitely Malfoy. The moonlight hit his aristocratic face and he looked down at her, his expression showing that he'd rather be anywhere but where he was at present.

"Well, let's get this over with," he grumbled, not even stopping to greet her. "You have a broom?"

Ginny nodded enthusiastically and stood up, holding out her Shooting Star. Draco sneered at it and let out a snobby laugh. "It's the best I _have_, Malfoy," she said through gritted teeth, suddenly annoyed. Yeah, she was poor. But who was this git to insult her, especially when she could get him thrown out of school.

"Yeah, but you're never going to learn to play Quidditch on that thing," he retorted with a sigh. "I figured as much. Here." He dropped something at her feet and Ginny looked down to see a slightly battered, but still very new Nimbus 2001. "You can use it while we're here."

"Thank you, Malfoy," Ginny said, staring down at it.

"Well, let's start," Malfoy growled under his breath. "Up!," he shouted. His Accelerina Maxima flew into his hand and he looked over at Ginny.

"Up!," she mimicked. The Nimbus flipped over and bounced a few feet away.

"Do you want the broom to come up or not, Weasley? Say it with some power."

Ginny took a deep breath. "UP!," she repeated. The broom shot into her hand like a rocket and she looked down at it, a surprised expression on her face.

"Okay, now get on," Malfoy instructed, mounting his own broom and kicking off, gliding a few feet above her. Ginny stood over her broom and shakily rose a few feet into the air.

"Oh!," she exclaimed as the nose dove sharply and she nearly fell off.

"You have to let the broom know who's in charge!," Draco called, gliding easily around her. "It can tell that you're scared." He flew up again. Now he was nearly thirty feet in the air. "Bring it up here, Weasley!"

Ginny, trying very hard not to shake, guided the nose of the broom up and felt a sudden sense of elation as it began to steadily rise. Not very quickly or very smoothly, but she was rising just the same. After a moment, she came face to face with Malfoy, who was sitting upon his broom, not even holding on, examining his cuticles. "Oh, up here finally, are you?"

"Shut up, Malfoy," she murmured. "Now what?"  
"How fast can you fly?," he asked.

"Um…well, I've never really rode anything quicker than the Shooting Star," she admitted. "So, I don't know. I went to the maximum speed on that one."

"Which is about the maximum speed of a tortoise," Malfoy muttered, rolling his gray eyes. "Fly to the end zone and back, as quickly as you can."  
Ginny nodded and leaned forward. She squealed as the broom took off. She had never flown so quickly in her life. She saw the Quidditch hoops coming up and tried to turn, but jerked too hard and suddenly saw the large Slytherin banners lining that corner of the pitch growing larger and larger. With a sharp pain she hit them and lost grip of the broom, falling down towards the ground, which by now was only about ten feet down. She hit the cold pitch on her back, feeling a sharp engage her hold body. The broom landed on top of her with a thump. A moment later, Malfoy landed beside her and looked down at her leisurely.

"You don't know how to turn, I take it?"

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," she said sarcastically, struggling to sit up. "I didn't expect it to go so fast."

Malfoy laughed. "You think that was fast?" He seemed to be contemplating something. "Get on," he finally said.

"What?," Ginny questioned. There was still a dull pain thudding through her whole body and now Draco Malfoy wanted her to get on his broom? Maybe she had hit her head…

"I want you to see how quickly you can go," he replied. "If you want to play Quidditch and impress Potter, I suggest you do this."

Ginny's face turned scarlet red. "I'm not doing this to impress Harry," she lied.

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Sure. And I'm doing this out of the kindness of my own heart," he said. "Get on."

Reluctantly, Ginny climbed to her feet and got behind Draco on his broom. "What do I do?"

"Just hold on," Draco replied and then without warning, he shot straight into the air. Letting out a petrified scream, Ginny grabbed him around his waist and held on as tightly as she could.

If she had thought that she had been going fast before on the Nimbus, it was nothing to the speed she was traveling at now. Everything around her was a blur and she wondered vaguely how people could possibly play Quidditch going this speed. Malfoy shot off the Quidditch pitch, over the canopy of the Forbidden Forest and then back around the perimeter of the stands. It must have been ten minutes, but it felt like only a few seconds before he gently guided his broom back to the ground.

"I think that's enough for today, Weasley," he said as their feet hit the ground. "I'm busy tomorrow. After dinner the day after that."

Ginny realized that she was still gripping her arms around him and dropped them in mortification. "Okay," she squeaked, jumping off the broom. Malfoy quickly glided off to collect his Nimbus and then got off of his Accelerina and strode towards the castle without another word.

Ginny picked up the Shooting Star, lying abandoned in the middle of the pitch. She shook her head and started up towards Hogwarts, following Malfoy's receding form.


	2. Chapter Two

-1**A/N: **Comments on bottom. PLEASE review!

**Chapter Two**

The next day dawned bright and clear. Ginny yawned as she headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. She was still sore from the night before. Landing on the cold, icy ground had not felt good, but if she went to the infirmary Madam Pomfrey would want to know what she had done to hurt herself, then she'd have to admit to the flying lessons, which would rat out Malfoy, which would mean he wouldn't give her lessons anymore. It was overall a terrible situation

"What _happened_ to you last night?," Hermione asked as Ginny settled down at the Gryffindor table next to her. "I tried to find you after dinner to go over that Potion you were having trouble with, but you weren't in the common room or the library."

"Oh…," Ginny murmured, remembering suddenly that Hermione had promised to help her with her homework. "I got…erm…frustrated with it and went for a walk."  
Hermione looked at her carefully, as if trying to figure out if she were telling the truth. "Well, okay. Do you want to go over it now?"  
Ginny nodded and pulled her Potions notes out of her bag and tried to pay attention as Hermione attempted to explain to her how to make a potion to heal dragon bites. Unfortunately, her thoughts started to drift and by the time the mail came, she was totally off in her own little world.

She noticed a huge, hulking eagle owl and followed its progress as it dropped an envelope onto the Slytherin table. Ginny watched as Draco Malfoy, who had been laughing with his goons, Crabbe and Goyle, picked it up and ripped it open. His eyes scanned the parchment and the look of merriment on his face seemed to die. A moment later he pushed away from the table and hurried out of the Great Hall.

Ginny's brow wrinkled as she stared at the empty doorway through which he had just disappeared. Maybe someone else had found out! Maybe she wasn't going to be able to finish her flying lessons!

"Ginny? Ginny, are you okay?," Hermione asked, startled, looking at the expression on her friend's face.

Ginny however was oblivious as she hurriedly shoved her books into her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "I'm fine, Hermione. Thanks for the help!," she called as she hurried down the length of the table towards the exit.

She walked into the main lobby and looked around, wondering where Malfoy had gone. She didn't care why he was upset - she just wanted to make sure their lessons weren't off. Biting her lip, she started down the stone stairs towards the dungeons, where she knew the Slytherin common room to be. She was halfway down the first long corridor when the familiar, disgusting smell infiltrated her nostrils again. It got more pungent as she closed in on a door, left slightly ajar.

She hesitantly pushed it open and found that it was an old, abandoned class room. There didn't appear to be anyone else in the room, save Ginny, but she peered around anxiously. She was certain that the smell was coming from this room…

"Great Wizards," Malfoy exclaimed in frustration, suddenly stepping out from behind a dusty tapestry. "You nearly gave me a heart attack! Are you stalking me or something?"  
"NO!," Ginny exclaimed, feeling disgusted. Her stalk Malfoy…honestly! The nerve of the little wanker. "I just…wanted to make sure that our lessons were still on for tomorrow."

"Well, I'll let you know if they aren't," Malfoy said, rolling his eyes. "What made you think I'd changed my mind already?"  
"I…erm…saw you in the Great Hall reading a letter. I thought you were in trouble," she muttered.

"You ARE stalking me," Malfoy said, staring at her in amazement. "Honestly Weasley, I know I'm handsome, but that's a bit extreme. Save your stalking for Potter!"

"I'm NOT bloody stalking you," Ginny spat back at him, her cheeks going red. "And I don't stalk Harry." And you're not handsome, she thought to herself. Okay, that one was a lie. Malfoy was quite handsome. Gorgeous really. But his personality…yech.

"Okay, okay," Malfoy muttered, waving his hand as if to dismiss her.

"What are you doing in here anyway?," Ginny asked, suddenly feeling quite uncomfortable and not knowing how to make a very graceful exit.

"What does it smell like," Malfoy replied with a smirk. "Look, those lessons, they don't extend past the Quidditch pitch. Besides, what would your little bodyguards say if they saw you in an abandoned classroom with Draco Malfoy?" He stopped to consider this. "Actually, that would be quite funny. I do hope they walk in."

"You didn't answer my question," Ginny said.

"And I don't have to," Malfoy replied. "Don't you have a class to go to?"

"Yes, Potions," Ginny answered. She still made no move to leave the room.

Malfoy glanced back over at her. "Well? Why aren't you going there?"

"They're not regular muggle cigarettes, are they?," she asked quietly.

Malfoy smirked again. "Nope."

"They aren't even cigarettes at all. Am I right?"

"Look Weasley, why do you care?"

"I don't!," she cried. "I just…wow."

"Go to Potions," Malfoy said, reminding her.

"Oh!," she exclaimed, readjusting her bag. "Well, tomorrow then."

Malfoy grunted in reply and Ginny walked out of the room, careful to shut the door behind her. That boy…he really wasn't the nicest.

---

"Ginny, what is that scratch?"

Ginny snapped out of the daydream she had been having at the dinner table that evening in the great hall. She had been imagining how shocked everyone was going to look when she flew out onto the Quidditch pitch in March. Ron was gaping at her and staring very hard at her neck.

"What scratch?," she asked self-consciously, reaching up to where he was staring. Sure enough, her fingers touched upon a raising in her skin. She hadn't even noticed it before. It didn't help that the rest of her body, the part that was covered in robes, was starting to bruise. Stupid, hard ground.

"That one," Ron replied, rolling his eyes. "You haven't been letting Pig sleep in your bed again, have you?"  
"No," Ginny mumbled. "I guess it happened when I went for my walk yesterday." Ginny noticed Hermione looking at her suspiciously and quickly busied herself talking to another Gryffindor sixth-year on her other side.

Dinner was almost over when Ginny happened to glance across the Great Hall at the Slytherin table. She wondered vaguely what Malfoy had to do that was so important that he couldn't teach her that night. She got her answer almost immediately.

Blaise Zabini, a very pretty Slytherin in Malfoy's year came up behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders, before leaning over and whispering something in his ear. He grinned and said something back to her, than tossed his napkin onto the table and followed Blaise out of the hall.

"What are you staring at? Don't tell me you've suddenly developed a crush on Goyle," Ron said, snapping his fingers in front of Ginny's face. He had sat down across from her without her even realizing it.

"Goyle?," Ginny asked in shock. "Ron! That is disgusting!" He and Harry burst into laughter.

Hermione was also stifling a laugh. "You want to go work on that potion?"

Ginny nodded and the two of them gathered up their books and left behind Ron and Harry who were still sputtering with laughter.

---

"Where are you going tonight, Ginny?," Ron asked the next night as Ginny, clad in her thick winter robes, slipped out of the portrait hole just as he was coming in from dinner.

"Um…to the library," Ginny replied, hurrying away. She hated being such a bad liar. Surely Ron knew that something was up. Hermione certainly did. She had spent much of the time during their little tutoring session trying to find out where Ginny _really _had been the night before. Her 'going for a walk' excuse just didn't seem to be holding up.

Ginny pushed open the front doors of the Entrance Hall and strode quickly across the Quidditch pitch. Before she even got there she saw a small flicker of light and heard laughing. She considered turning back, but realized that if she stood him up, Malfoy wouldn't hesitate to cut off the lessons all together, even if he might get in trouble.

As she got closer she realized that one of the laughs was coming from Draco Malfoy himself, the other from Blaise Zabini, who was standing next to him on the Quidditch Pitch, and the flicker of light was coming from something, which Malfoy stamped out as soon as he saw Ginny approaching.

"Hello," Ginny said meekly, approaching the two. Blaise raised her eyebrows at Ginny, but didn't say anything to her.

"See you later, Draco," Blaise said airily, ambling away towards the castle. "Eleven O'clock, okay?"

"Okay," Malfoy mumbled. His attention was already focused on his broom, which he was inspecting for bent twigs. He looked up at Ginny. "Let's get this done with."  
"I love how you always sound so enthusiastic," Ginny said sarcastically. "What was she doing here? I thought you wanted this all hush-hush."

"Blaise won't tell anyone," Malfoy said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Not if I tell her not to."

"That's a terrible thing to say about your girlfriend," Ginny said, thinking that Malfoy sounded like a caveman.

Malfoy just chortled. "Girlfriend? Please, Weasley, don't make me laugh. Blaise isn't my girlfriend."

"But-," Ginny said confused, but broke off again. She didn't want Malfoy to know she had been watching him during dinner too. His head might blow up so big he'd just float away. Not that it would be a _bad _thing, per se.

"Here," Malfoy said, thrusting the Nimbus towards her. He mounted his own broom and quickly shot off into the night's sky, apparently waiting for Ginny to catch up.

She got onto the broom and kicked off, surprised at how quickly she was rising, but how slowly it felt. After riding on the Accelerina the other night, the Nimbus felt slower than her Shooting Star. Only a few seconds later, she was level with Malfoy. "How's that?"

"Better," he replied with a shrug. "I'm going to teach you how to turn today though."

Ginny nodded and for the next hour listened to Malfoy's instruction. He was impatient and haughty and insulted her flying skills every chance that he got, but by the end of the lesson, she was doing loops around the Quidditch pitch. She wasn't nearly good enough to play for the Gryffindor team yet, but the improvement was stunning.

"Okay, that's enough," Malfoy finally said and plunged out of Ginny's view to the cold Quidditch pitch below. She pointed the nose of her broom down and slowly descended until her feet hit the grass in a sort of rough landing.

Malfoy walked over and took the Nimbus from her and started up towards the castle, not even saying good-bye. Ginny hurried to catch up. She was still so elated from being able to turn without crashing into things that she even forgot to hate Malfoy for a moment. "Hey! Malfoy, wait up!"

Malfoy didn't stop, but did slow down, and threw a curious glance over his shoulder, which he tried quickly to hide. Ginny fell into stride beside him. "Thank you," she said sincerely.

He looked at her again, the surprise more evident on his place. "Did you just thank me?"

"I believe so," she said, trying not to laugh at his expression.

He shrugged. "Well, you're welcome." He started walking faster again.

"Malfoy!," Ginny exclaimed again, hurrying to stay with his footing.

"What?," he asked impatiently, though the malicious edge of his voice had definitely softened.

Ginny for some reason, maybe the cold air whipping through her air, suddenly felt very brave. "How come you're always with Blaise if she's not your girlfriend?"

Malfoy looked at her oddly. "That's really none of your business, nor do I see why you should care."

"I just…I just don't understand," she stammered. "She's really pretty and you're both in Slytherin, so you must have loads in common."

"Loads in common? Talking about You-Know-Who? Sharing Death Eater anecdotes from our fathers?," he asked, looking quite peeved.

"No!," Ginny exclaimed. "I mean-"

"I _know _what you mean," Malfoy retorted edgily. "If you must know, and honestly I don't know _why _I'm bloody telling you this, Blaise is not my girlfriend, because she's a complete airhead. She's fun to hang around sometimes, takes my mind off of serious stuff, because all she talks about is meaningless drivel. But she's definitely not worth hanging around _all _the time. Does that answer your question?"

Ginny shrugged. "More or less." They had reached the castle now and she didn't say another word to Draco as he turned to go down to the dungeons and she climbed the marble staircase to go to her dorm.

A/N I was SO floored when I saw the response that I got to the first chapter. I mean my mouth literally dropped open. I got almost as many for that one chapter than half of what I got for my whole last story combined (and that was 15 chapters).

Anyway, I just want to thank everyone who reviewed: **Millefiori** (I don't know if your review showed up too, but I totally agree with you and thank you for e-mailing me. I was so excited…hehe), **Leo**, **Tara**, **Riana** (You'll find out where he gets them in later chapters ; ) ), **Annika Oie**, **Hermione-2113**, **Darco'sGirl**, **Simply Bewitching 1**, **stokely**, **Crazed Author**, **rose wonder **(they're illegal at Hogwarts cause Dumbledore says so :D), **Pegasia Silverfeather**, **jade-tiger**, **GinnyYvette**, **Crystal**, **Gambit Gurl Isis**, **Robbie Dobbie Doo Dah **(love your name), **Lady Rhiyana **(something worse), **Multiple Lilys**, **Fairly Fiendish Fairy **(love your name too), **Lauren**, **Ariel**, and the two anonymous reviewers.

THANK YOU ALL SOOOOOOO MUCH

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	3. Chapter Three

A/N: Here's the next chapter! You get to see a little bit of Draco's thought processes…and a little progress in the D/G arena. More comments & thanks at end. Please read & review!!!

****

Chapter Three

__

And he has his minions 

With no real opinions

Cause they all walk on glass

And your lies become the truth

And give me the proof

That you really care

Draco sat in the corner of the Slytherin common room, his eyes focused on the huge Potions text in front of him as he prepared for Snape's test the next day. He had been trying without success to remember the ingredients for an advanced healing potion, but the components all seemed to run together in his head.

He looked up and around the room. Crabbe and Goyle were on one of the sofas, appearing to study, but closer examination revealed Crabbe's book to be upside down and Goyle to be staring into space. Neither of them spoke. They really weren't bad guys, Draco thought, almost warmly, just a bit slow on the uptake.

He slapped his book closed with a clap, drawing apprehensive stares from several nearby first years. It was no use - he _knew _why he wasn't able to focus. It was that _damn _Weasley girl!

He had been meeting up with her for two weeks now. To his shock though, the lessons were becoming less and less bothersome and more and more enjoyable with every day. They never really spoke, other than his instructions, but every now and then she would surprise him with a random question: why he was always with Blaise, why he bothered Potter, why he was a Slytherin. He usually rolled his eyes and changed the subject back to Quidditch. But a few times she had caught him off guard and he found himself wondering what exactly she wanted to know about him. 

Another thing bothered him too: she didn't really annoy him. If it hadn't been for her fiery red hair, he wouldn't even remember that she was a Weasley. He almost found himself thinking of her fondly sometimes when he looked down at her determined expressions. He started to think that the girl really would have made a good Slytherin: she was cunning enough, that was certain, considering that she was using him. And she definitely was sly, sneaking in all those little personal questions. It was times like those that he had to remind himself that she was, indeed, a Weasley and a Weasley who was blackmailing him at that.

"Hey Draco," two voices said, suddenly wrenching him out of his thoughts. Blaise Zabini plopped down in the chair next to him, while Pansy Parkinson slid into the chair across. "Are you ready for this Potion's exam?"

"Yeah, I think so," Draco lied. 

"Of course _you _are," Pansy said in frustration, opening her Potions book. "I'm still trying to learn that stupid Confusing Concoction from last week."

Draco smirked. "Are you sure it didn't work?"

Pansy looked up at him questioningly, then realization dawned in her eyes. "Oh," she grumbled, throwing her quill at him. "Just because you're Potions Genius Boy doesn't mean you have to get on me about my lack of skills. I'm way better in Care of Magical Creatures."

"That's because I don't care," Draco said smugly.

"That's because you're terrified of Magical Creatures."

"Shut up, Blaise," Draco mumbled, his cheeks going a bit pink. Ever since that incident with the Hippogriff in his third year, he had been a bit reluctant to get near anything bigger than a Flobberworm. 

Blaise just smirked. "I need to talk to you about something, Draco," she said, standing up. "Let's go for a walk."

"I really need to finish studying," Draco replied, not wanting to listen to Blaise's idle chatter.

"Liar. You don't even have your book open."

"I was about to open it," he lied again.

"No, because I just saw you close it like five minutes ago."

"Why is everyone always bloody _watching _me?," Draco cried in frustration.

Pansy mumbled something that included the words "damn" and "sexy", before turning her attention back to her book. 

"Come walk with me," Blaise repeated and stood up. Reluctantly Draco stood up and followed her out the gap in the stone wall. 

"What do you want?," Draco asked as they wandered through the dark hallways.

"Just wanted to talk, really," Blaise replied. "How are your little flying lessons going?"

Draco shrugged. "Fine, I guess." Blaise looked at him carefully and Draco felt her scrutinizing him. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason, really," she replied. "I just haven't heard you whine about having to go in a while."

"Well, it's something I've got to do," Draco replied. "My father would skin me alive if he knew some of the things that I've been up to."

They walked in silence together, finally climbing the steps and emerging into the main entrance, where magical light cast eerie shadows around them. "You're starting to like her, aren't you?," Blaise said quietly.

Draco looked at her in shock, sputtering indignantly. "Like who? Weasley?"

"I don't mean you're in _love _with her," Blaise retorted, looking scandalized at the very idea. "But you don't hate her, do you?"  
"What's it to you?," Draco mumbled, not meeting her eyes. 

"It's nothing," Blaise shrugged. 

"Okay then," Draco said impatiently. "I'm going back to the common room." He turned and walked away, not bothering to wait for her.

"It's just-," Blaise began. She hurried after him. "It's just that you're _changing_, Draco."

He looked over at her questioningly, his gray eyes revealing nothing. "What do you mean?"  
"Well, you haven't been disappearing and coming back reeking of smoke in almost a week," she began. "You don't pick on Potter and Weasley, the older one, nearly as much anymore. You don't complain about having to teach a Gryffindor to fly…You're just acting very un-Slytherin."

Draco shrugged again. "Maybe I'm growing up," he finally said. 

---

Draco skipped dinner the next day. His Potions test had gone surprisingly well and the rest of his classes that day hadn't been too stressful, but all he wanted at that moment was to go out to the Quidditch pitch and fly around for a while before Weasley arrived.

He entered the pitch and dropped the Nimbus on the ground, then kicked off and soared off. He had only risen about thirty feet when he looked down to see a body sprawled in the middle of the Quidditch pitch. With a start, he realized it was Weasley. She looked so serene there, her red hair fanned out around his face, that he almost hesitated before flying back down and landing beside her. She didn't move.

"Hey, Weasley! You dead?," he shouted, looking down at her.

Her brown eyes burst open and she sat up. "Malfoy! What are you doing here already?"

"Skipped dinner. Wanted to fly a bit," he muttered. "What are you doing here?"  
"Skipped dinner. Wanted to get away from everyone a bit," she replied. "Well, you can go fly if you want. I won't bother you."

Draco was about to kick off again when he decided, much to his own surprise, to sit down next to Weasley. She looked at him in surprise. He didn't say anything, only stared straight ahead. "Well?," he finally asked, looking over at her. She was still staring at him in confusion.

"Well what?"

"Aren't you going to ask me a million questions about my life?"

"You would just tell me to mind my own business," she replied truthfully.

"Good point," Draco agreed. He felt as confused as she had looked. Why was he even bothering to talk to her? It was quite mystifying.

"Well…erm…," Weasley began. "Okay, I have a question."

"What's that?"  
"Can I call you Draco?"

He looked at her, startled. "You want to?"

"Yeah…well, if you'll call me Ginny," she replied. "I just hate when you call me Weasley. I'm not my brother and you call him Weasley too."

"Well…okay, Ginny," Draco replied. 

"Okay, Draco," Ginny replied, the name sounding very odd indeed coming out of her mouth. "You don't hate me, do you?" It came out as a statement, not a question, and Draco looked at her in surprise. He and Blaise had just been having this same conversation the day before.

"What?"  
"You don't hate me," she said again. "I mean, I thought you did, but you don't."

Draco just shrugged. "Come on. Let's fly."

---

Their flying lesson that night lasted much longer than usual. Draco was trying to teach Ginny how to fly steadily with one hand. He had found out from her that she wanted to become a Chaser, having much admired the three girls who had played Chasers when her older twin brothers had played on the Gryffindor team. He hadn't even realized that it was so late until he noticed that many of the lights in the castle had started to flicker out, signifying that many people were going to bed.

"Quintaped," Draco muttered and waited for the stone wall to slide open. He stepped into the common room and tossed his two brooms onto the sofa and then collapsed in an armchair. 

"You're back late," a voice said quietly. Draco was startled, but didn't show it, and looked over towards the corner where the voice had come from. 

"What's up, Blaise?"

"Nothing," she said innocently, sitting on the couch across from him, next to his brooms. "I was just waiting up to see if you wanted any…erm…cigarettes," she finished with a small scoff.

Draco stared back over at her, a platinum eyebrow arched. "Nope," he replied airily.

Blaise looked back at him as if he had just grown another head. "_No_?"

"No."

"Why not?," she asked, as if he had insulted her.

Draco stood up and picked up his broomsticks. "I don't need any." He started walking towards the corridor that led to his dorm room, then turned back to look at Blaise. "And don't bother offering again."

"Boys," Blaise muttered moodily, sneering at his retreating back.

  
A/N: Wow! I am soooooo flattered by the amount of reviews I've received for the last two chapters. I'm actually only ten reviews below what I got for my ENTIRE last story. How is that for crazy? I love it!

Anyway, just wanted to thank the following wonderful, fantastic, awesome reviewers:

****

Gohansfan (sorry if I confused you), **frananddragon**, **ice angel**, **animalcrackers**, **Orothoroniel aka Celena**, **Eleoopy**, **stokely**, **ManicalLaughterofaManiac**, **Rebuky**, **Dramaqueen (**of course Hermione will get nosey…it's what she does…hehe), **The Dragon's Angel**, **karen**, **QueenOfTheRouge**, **cat**, **Ace Of Spades**, **crazy lil bitch **(it affects people different ways and for Draco, it just calms him down - plus Ginny always catches him before anything can kick in), **Kelsey McCartney**, **Ginny Yvette **(I like to call in Wizardjuana), **Crystal**, **Addicted2UrAllure**, and **Kitycat87**.

And just so you all know, I in NO way encourage drug use. Just because Draco does it doesn't mean you should too! ; ) He is a fictional, evil character after all.

Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review PLEASE?


	4. Chapter Four

A/N: A bit of light-hearted babble and a little romance -sort of! Comments at bottom! Enjoy and review, review, review! 

****

Chapter Four

__

With your gorgeous grin 

You have the world sucked in

Believing in everything you say

Watch out

He'll charm you

-Leona Naess

Ginny awoke Saturday, February 14th, opened her eyes, and immediately let them fall back closed. Saint Valentines Day was most definitely her least favorite day of the year.

"Ginny! Wake up!," Parvati Patil cried, running into Ginny's room, shrieking excitedly. Ginny wasn't very close to Parvati, but the two did talk on occasion and Ginny knew that Parvati placed Valentine's Day at the top of her list of holidays, even above Christmas. 

"I'd rather wallow in my misery by myself, thanks," Ginny groaned, rolling over and swaddling herself in her thick crimson quilt. 

"No misery!," Parvati exclaimed far too cheerfully. "Come look at what I did to the common room!"

Ginny reluctantly allowed Parvati, who was clad in bunny pink robes, to take her by the wrist and drag her out of the sixth-year girl's dorm and down the winding staircase to the common room. 

At first Ginny thought that her eyes were just too blurry with sleep. Then she thought maybe it was just a scary nightmare of some sorts. But nope, she was awake, and yes Parvati had outdone Gilderoy Lockhart in the Valentine's tackiness department. 

The circular room was covered from floor to ceiling with giant, grotesquely pink hearts and flowers. Parvati had enchanted some of them to float around after people. When they caught up with one, they would attach themselves and lay on a huge kiss. Ginny was just wrestling off a particularly feisty paper daffodil when she heard a stifled laugh behind her. She turned, expecting to see Parvati, but apparently the girl had run off to wake up and torture other Gryffindors, because she was nowhere in sight.

Harry, Ron, and Seamus Finnigan stood at the foot of the stairs. It was Ron's snicker that she had heard a moment earlier and he was now practically asphyxiated from laughing so hard. Harry was just staring around as if he wasn't sure if it was some terrible dream or not. Seamus on the other hand seemed quite excited.

"I reckon this is Parvati's work, eh?," Seamus asked, a huge grin never leaving his face.

"What ever made you guess?," Ginny cracked sarcastically. She just shook her head and brushed past her brother and Harry. "I'm going back to bed."

She was so tired she didn't even notice a pair of sapphire blue eyes following her every move.

---

"I can't believe what Parvati did," Hermione laughed as Ginny joined her at the lunch table later that day. She had slept until almost noon and had only gotten back out of bed because of the deep growling in her stomach. Now she was busily spooning mouthfuls of potatoes and chicken into her mouth, eager to get back to the common room and be lazy again before dinner. 

There was the sudden flapping of wings and everyone, as was custom, looked up as several dozen owls swooped into the room. Ginny glanced up, but quickly turned her attention back to her food. She didn't really feel like seeing all of the other girls get their little valentines. It was simply depressing.

She had just taken a sip of pumpkin juice when something landed in front of her. She stared at it in amazement, not certain if it was for her. A single orange rose, still closed in a bud, lay on her plate.

Hermione gaped at her too. "Ginny! Somebody sent you a rose!," she exclaimed, clapping her hands excitedly, eyeing the bud. "Open the card!"

It was only then when Ginny realized that there was a small note attached. The outside had her name scrawled on it in long, spidery handwriting. She opened in a rush, eager to know who it was from. 

She was however, very disappointed, when it only read: "Happy Valentine's Day".

"Who's it from? What does it say?," Hermione inquired, trying inconspicuously to look over Ginny's shoulder.

"It doesn't say," Ginny murmured, setting the note back down on the table and picking up the rose. "I wonder why someone would send me a closed rose," she pondered out loud. "And an orange one at that."

Hermione suddenly got one of her intellectual looks on her face. "Ginny, this is actually really good, you know that?"

"How so?"  
"Well, did you know that all roses have different meanings?"  
"No, do enlighten me, oh smart one," Ginny replied, knowing she really had no other choice. When Hermione got on a roll like that, it was best to sit still and avoid showing fear. It was quite similar to having a wasp land on your arm.

"Well," Hermione began, "In the harems of the Middle East, there was a special rose language invented as a secret way for lovers to communicate their love for one another. Each different kind of rose had a different meaning. Don't you realize what _this_ means?," she intoned, pointing at the rose.

"Erm…no," Ginny admitted. 

__

Hermione sighed, swooned almost. "A rose _bud_, that means _budding _desire, Gin!"

Ginny's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Really? How come it's orange then? Because of my hair, maybe?"

"No, colors have meaning too," Hermione said matter-of-factly. "Orange signifies…erm…," she seemed to be thinking hard, then her face brightened. "Now I remember! Orange means fascination. Somebody is fascinated with you!"

Ginny stared at the rose with a growing fondness. "Wow…," was all she could mutter.

"Now you've just got to figure out who would have put that much thought into a gift," Hermione said, wiggling her eyebrows. "Who do you think it was?"

"No clue," Ginny replied truthfully. "I only wish I knew."

---

On the other side of the Great Hall, Draco was having an equally odd Valentine's Day. He hadn't woke to find his common room covered in grotesque decoration, nor had he received any anonymous gifts. No, this Valentine's Day was odd, because for the first time, he actually had sent someone a Valentine. 

Draco didn't usually attend lunch, preferring to eat in the common room with his friends, but he had come down here to see her reaction. 

He didn't know _what_ exactly had possessed him to send that rose to her. After they had agreed to use each other's first names, it was almost as if they had met each other all over again, but for the very first time. He no longer thought of her as "Weasley", but as Ginny. And he was sure that she felt the same way. They weren't exactly friends. He still didn't acknowledge her off of the Quidditch pitch, nor did she acknowledge him, but there was no more of the hostile atmosphere that had initially tainted their lessons.

He thought vaguely of the night before. They had been flying around, passing the Quaffle back and forth, talking about Quidditch and a few other things, when he had suddenly realized that they were _having a conversation._ Not an argument, not an insult fest- but a full-fledged, human to human conversation. He was listening to her, she was laughing at his stories…it was weird.

"You going to eat that?," Crabbed growled from Draco's left, breaking him out of his memory. Draco looked down at the untouched food on his plate and impatiently shook his head. When was the damn mail going to come? 

As if the owls had read his thoughts, there was the sudden flutter of wings. Draco picked up a huge, gaudy red envelope, no doubt from his mother, and opened it, pretending to read the magical card in front of him, but in actuality staring over the top of it, all the way across the hall to the Gryffindor table. He saw the school owl he had borrowed that morning swoop over and drop the flower onto Ginny's plate. 

A small smile, for once not a smirk, crossed his face as he watched her expression turn from shock to amazement to happiness as Granger animatedly talked about something. The entire time, Ginny never took her eyes off of the rose. It was indeed an achievement. 

But now what was this? That Irish bloke, Seamus Something-or-the-other, was sliding down onto the long stool next to Ginny and smiling at her. She was smiling back at him and suddenly she looked down at the rose and then back up at The Irish Louse (which Draco had already decided to call him) and nodded in reply to something he said. Even from all the way across the Great Hall, he could see Ginny's cheeks flame a burning pink as The Irish Louse got up and walked away to join Weasley (the elder and more annoying) and Potter at the end of the table. 

Malfoy stood up quickly, nearly knocking over a startled first-year seated to his right. He had every desire to go over and curse the daylights out of The Irish Louse. He just _knew _that The Irish Louse had claimed that the rose from him. Just _knew _it. Clenching his fists tightly, knowing that he would give himself away, he quickly turned on his heel and strode out of the Great Hall.

Reaching the highly arched entrance hall, he leaned back against the cold stone wall. He didn't need to get so upset, really. He didn't like Ginny. Not like _that_. He was just doing something nice for someone. And really, what was wrong with that?

----

Ginny walked back to the common room after lunch, hoping that her cheeks weren't glowing too much. She couldn't believe her day had gone from terrible to absolutely fabulous in the course of one meal. After Hermione had finished talking about the rose, Seamus had walked over and sat down next to her. She had been so absorbed in the rose that she hadn't even noticed him at first, not until Hermione had elbowed her in the side.

"Ginny," Seamus had said, his blue eyes focused on her brown ones. "How are you?"

"Great," she had replied, starting to wonder if maybe he had been the one to send it to the rose.

"You seem to like that rose," he had remarked, looking down at it. He had an odd expression in his eyes. Ginny had just nodded eagerly, too petrified to say anything. "Look…erm…I was just wondering, Gin…we have a Hogsmeade day tomorrow. Doyawanageabuterberwitmeorsomthn?," he had finished in a rush.

"Pardon?," Ginny had questioned in confusion. What on Earth…?

Seamus had taken a deep breath. "Do you want to get a butter beer or something with me? Tomorrow, I mean. Kind of like…a date, I guess."

Of course she had said yes, Ginny reflected with a grin. She had always thought that Seamus was cute. She couldn't believe it. An actual date. Now what was she going to _wear_?

---

Ginny had just closed the door to her dormitory later that evening and was walking down the circular stairway, off to meet Draco, when she felt a hand fasten securely around her elbow. 

__

She turned around, startled. "Hermione! You gave me a fright!," she exclaimed, holding a hand over her heart. Hermione didn't answer and seemed to be on the edge of words. "What's wrong?"

"Where are you going?," Hermione finally said.

Ginny gulped nervously. She had hoped that Hermione had forgotten about the fact that she wasn't around for an hour or so three or four days a week. Apparently not. "Oh, just for a walk, 'Mione," she replied, hoping she sounded cheerful.

"Ginny," Hermione said warningly, "tell me the truth."

Ginny sighed. "I'm going to practice my flying," she finally said, crossing her arms over her chest. "It was supposed to be a surprise."

Hermione's face flashed with some relief. "Flying? You're not out…cavorting with gypsies or anything?"  
"Gypsies?! Honestly, Hermione, where do you come up with this rubbish?," Ginny exclaimed, staring at her friend. "I just want to make the house team."

Hermione nodded. "I know. I'm sorry I'm acting so weird. It's just that it's been over a month and you keep disappearing and not telling anyone where you're going and I think that your brother is starting to suspect that something is going on. He thinks that you have some secret Hufflepuff boyfriend or something."

At that, Ginny had to laugh. Ron would _wish _ that it was some Hufflepuff boyfriend when and if he found out who she had really been with - and the fact that she really didn't dislike the person she was with at all. "I'm fine," she said reassuringly. "I'm just really determined to surprise everyone. Please don't tell, Hermione."

Hermione nodded and started back up the stairs towards her dorm room. "I won't," she replied. "But Gin…if there's anything else you need to tell me, don't hesitate."

"I won't," Ginny answered, for the first time wishing that there was someone who she could talk to. Then she turned on her heel and rushed down the stairs, eager to get the practice done with, and back upstairs to get her beauty rest for her date the next day with Seamus.

A/N: As always, I am eternally grateful for all of you who reviewed. I luuuuuurve you. You're the greatest: 

ice angel , [goodgirlsbadboys][1] (I'll try not to), [Simply Bewitching 1][2] , rupretsweethart15, [Robbie Dobbie Doo Dah][3] , elen, [Ginny001][4] , [Sakura1287][5] , [ElvenJen][6], cat, [Eleoopy][7], rebel, [FeiraMenina][8], [Darco'sGirl][9] furiya, draco's gurl, [karen][10], [frananddragon][11], seekerpeeker, V, DIE PURPLE COW!!!!, [Crystal][12], gohansfan, and [KeeperOfTheMoon][13]. I am SOOOOOOO grateful. Your comments and reviews and suggestions and questions and what not really keep me going in this story.

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	5. Chapter Five

****

A/N: Thanks at the bottom. Please review! And I know that this chapter is a bit short, but I just wanted to get something out because I'm not going to be able to update for a few days. Oh, and please review!?

Chapter Five

__

Smoother than the LA weather

That's how he holds himself together

He is colder than the winter

- Leona Naess 

Ginny hummed to herself as she made her way across the school grounds toward the Quidditch pitch that night. What a great Valentine's Day, she surmised. She had gotten a beautiful rose and a date. Even if it wasn't with Harry (as it usually was in her fantasies) it was still with a perfectly nice, not to mention nice-looking seventh year.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she was even more surprised as she normally would have been when a hand closed over her wrist and with a sharp tug, someone pulled her into the shelter of a clump of topiary trimmed to resemble dragons. She opened her mouth to scream, but cut herself off at just a whimper when she met Draco's gray eyes.

He dropped her wrist and she immediately put her hands on her hips and glared at him in indignation. "What was _that _all about?," she asked, annoyed.

Draco just rolled his eyes. "I was trying to stop you before you got to the pitch. Ravenclaw is practicing today." Well, that cleared part of it up, Ginny thought. Since Draco was captain of the Slytherin team, he was given access to the practice booking log, where teams signed up to use the Quidditch pitch. Whenever a team had it booked, he had told her the day before and they took the next night off. But that still didn't explain to Ginny why he had bloody grabbed her wrist like that.

"Why didn't you just tell me?," she grumbled, taking her hand off of her hip to inspect her wrist, which was slowly turning red. "That hurt."

Draco rolled his eyes again. "What did you expect? For me to run across the grounds yelling 'Ginny! Ginny! We can't secretly meet tonight!'." He threw his arms up in a silly little sort of dance. She snickered and he quickly crossed his arms over his chest. "Anyway…"

"You say it like it's something sordid," Ginny remarked. "It's just Quidditch practice."

"You think that your brother would see it that way?," Draco asked, raising his silvery eyebrows. She didn't reply. "That's what I thought."

"Stop acting like you know everything," Ginny mumbled. She hated when he got that superior tone with her. Just when she was starting to think that he was maybe not that bad of a person, he always had to get that stupid, smug, self-satisfied look on his face. It was extremely irritating. "Because you don't," she finally added when he didn't say anything. He still didn't say anything and Ginny finally looked up from the ground, which she had been staring at since he had got that expression on his face. He was still standing there, looking calm and obnoxiously relaxed. "Well, aren't you going to say something?," she finally exploded, feeling as though she was talking to herself. She didn't know why he was acting like this. They had been getting on quite well the past few weeks - he was acting like stupid old Malfoy now. 

Draco just smirked, seemingly quite content with being irritating. "Something," he finally replied, raising his chin defiantly.

She let out a disgusted snort and threw her hands up in exasperation. "Forget it! I'm going back to the castle. Day after tomorrow?"

At this, his composure seemed to crack a bit. "Why not tomorrow?"

"I have a date, if you must know," she snapped. 

Something flashed over Draco's eyes, something that looked oddly enough like disappointment, but it was so momentary that Ginny thought she must have imagined it. "Ah. Did speccy little Potter finally ask you out?," he asked snidely.   
"No, as a matter of fact, it wasn't Harry," she replied. "Not that it's any of your business."

"I think we should practice tomorrow," Draco said insistently. 

Ginny looked at him in surprise, shocked to see almost a vulnerable expression in his eyes. It quickly faded as he realized that her eyes were on his. "I'm not going to back out of a date with Seamus Finnigan. Besides, missing one practice isn't going to hurt," she said.

"Tryouts are in two weeks, Ginny," Draco pointed out. "I thought making this team was really important to you. You shouldn't be skipping practice for some stupid little date."

"If I recall correctly," Ginny spat out, her eyes shooting daggers, "you skipped practice for a 'stupid little date' with Blaise. So don't even start with me!"

"You need to show some control," Draco muttered. "Your acting like all those other stupid little girls. Letting guys take over your life."

Ginny's brown eyes narrowed as she turned to face him. "You're one to talk about control, Draco Malfoy. Do you even remember why we started this? Because you couldn't 'control' yourself and were doing something completely stupid. So don't you even sit here and preach to me about controlling myself. I won't take it from a complete hypocrite. I won't!," she shouted, stomping her foot like a little child and instantly regretting it, though she tried to hide it.

Draco stared back at her in surprise. He hadn't thought that she had it in her. Had he been less of a man (and he considered himself quite a man, Draco did), he would have been frightened senseless by her diatribe. He shook his head slowly. "Fine, Ginny, _fine_," he murmured. "Do whatever you want."

He turned on his heel and started back towards the castle. Ginny stood there, watching him retreat and instantly felt another twinge of regret. She had quite possibly just ruined her whole blossoming friendship with Draco, all because of her stupid Weasley temper. And it was all over, what Draco had pointed out with annoying accuracy, a stupid little date. Her anger having subsided, she hurried after him. 

"Draco, wait," she said, grabbing his elbow. She had an eerie flashback of almost a month earlier when she had done the same thing to thank him. His response then had been cool distance. Now it was burning anger underneath a cool façade. Ginny could tell that he was trying hard not to explode, and vaguely wondered why he was so hacked off.

"_What_?," he finally snapped. 

"I'm sorry," she said, looking up at him, trying to make his eyes meet hers. "Draco, I am really so grateful for all you've done for me - even if I have had to force it out of you," she added in an undertone. "And," she continued, "if you want me to stay and practice tomorrow, I will. I…value your opinion."

Draco finally looked back down at her. He seemed to be debating something in his head and finally took a deep breath. "No," he finally said. "Have fun. I'll see you the day after tomorrow."

Ginny looked at him carefully. "Are you sure?" Draco only nodded. Ginny squealed happily - happy because she could go on her date with Seamus, and happy because Draco wasn't angry with her anymore - and leapt up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pecking him quickly on the cheek. "Thank you Draco!," she called, her cheeks already tingeing red as she turned and hurried into the castle, leaving a stunned Draco staring after her.

---

Draco chided himself as he made his way down to the dark dungeons, dragging his two broomsticks with him. Stupid, stupid, stupid he muttered repeating this over and over again in his mind.

He had lost control and if there was one thing Draco prided himself on, it was his ability to keep calm in any situation. He had spent a long time cultivating it - ever since his first year when he had cowered and ran away like a baby while in the Forbidden Forest with Potter. That calm, cool exterior was truly the only thing he had ever had to work to achieve and he was damn proud of it. 

But tonight when she had said she was going to skip their practice because of The Irish Louse he had felt oddly deflated and slighted. He had sent her a rose, for Merlin's sake! But then, he had to remind himself, he hadn't exactly _signed_ the note. She had no clue it was from him - she probably thought it was from The Irish Louse, as if that scoundrel would go to the trouble of hunting down an exceptionally rare Mystique Rose. As if that Louse could _afford _it, Draco thought with scorn.

And then there was the matter of that kiss. Granted - it had been just a peck on the cheek, just her being happy. He wasn't sure if he should run to the loo and scrub his cheek with scalding water. It had thrown him completely off guard and he didn't like that - but he couldn't even convince _himself_ that he hadn't liked the feel of her soft lips on his cheek - even if it had just been fleeting.

Overall, the situation upset him greatly.

Draco strode into the common room, pushing all thoughts aside and hoping he looked as cold and unaffected as ever.

"What's wrong, Draco?," was the first thing he heard. He glanced over and saw Blaise peering at him over the top of her Transfiguration text. She had been oddly distant since their quarrel.

Draco just shrugged in reply and simply out of lack for a better plan, walked over and sat at the other end of the sofa she had been studying on. "Nothing." 

"Liar," Blaise stated bluntly.

Draco looked at her in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"I know you better than anyone else, Draco," she said and Draco knew that this was the truth. "You're upset over the little Weasley girl." Draco didn't reply, only stared intently into the fireplace. "Just admit it. You're starting to fall for her, aren't you?"

"Please, Blaise," Draco said quietly, his voice eerily sedate. "Don't insult me."

"You're hopeless! You know that, right?"

Draco just sighed and buried his face in his hand. He hated everything just then: hated that Blaise could read him so well, hated Ginny for being someone totally different than he had expected, hated himself for what he was feeling. 

"I am _not _falling for her," Draco said snidely. "She's no one to me, just another runt in that litter of redheads. I'm only tolerating her so that she doesn't get me thrown out of school."

"Oh, so _that's _why you're constantly sneaking peeks at her at meals. And why you sent her that rose this morning," Blaise said sarcastically. Draco looked over at her, startled. How did she know about that? "As much as you want everyone, including yourself, to believe that you're a cold-hearted bastard, you're not. I can see right through you, Draco Malfoy." Blaise finished her speech with a flourish, tossing a lock of glossy brown hair over her shoulder. "Either get over it or stop moping."

Draco leaned back into the couch, looking over at his friend. "How did you know about the rose?"

A small smile crossed Blaise's lips. "Only _you_, Draco, would give a girl a rose that changes with your emotions."

Draco couldn't help a tiny smile from creasing his features. "Only me," he agreed, staring into the embers of the fire.

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed Chapter Four: 

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Karen (Yes, the thing about the roses is true. I meant to link to the page where I got the information, but now I can't find it.), **Tuilindo** (I can't believe all the reviews either!), **Dreammaker128** (Yes, this is going to be D/G…hopefully… unless he makes me mad), **Simply Bewitching 1 **( Longer chapters?! Well…I'll try… :/), **Dramaqueen** ( Blaise has kinda grown on me, so look for her in future chapters!), **Jen**, **grassie**, **Feira Menina**, **ice angel**, **Sarah**, **Multiple Lilys**, **Missy**, **Rainbow Dreamer **(Blaise is mentioned briefly in the first book at the sorting ceremony - it's never said whether it's a she or he. All you find out is that "Zabini, Blaise" became a Slytherin. Hope that helped!), **Draco's gal**, **Eleoopy** (Draco looks cute not matter WHAT he's doing, of course!), **ciNdy**, **Riauna**, **Isadora**, **frananddragon**, **Molly**, **KeeperOfTheMoon**, **Missfizz** ( The rose thing is true. And Seamus asked Ginny out now cause it was Valentine's Day and Seamus is just that kind of sweet guy.), **Cat**, & **Crystal**.

Like I said up top, I'm not going to be able to update for a few days, but I'm going to be working on the next chapter, so please, please, please let me know what you think! I look soooo forward to your reviews and I CAN'T BELIEVE that I have over 100 reviews already - I am absolutely floored. 

So please, as usual, review, review, review, review, review!!!!

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	6. Chapter Six

A/N: This was a REALLY tough chapter to write for some reason, and I'm still not entirely satisfied with it, so I would really appreciate any feedback you could give me. Also, I'm not going to put lyrics in the chapters anymore, simply because this story is going to be much longer than I originally intended. Anyhoo, more comments and thanks at bottom and PLEASE review, review, review!

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Chapter Six

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Ginny walked up the final set of stairs towards Gryffindor tower, willing her cheeks to cool down. She couldn't believe that she had kissed Draco. Draco _Malfoy_. It hadn't been on purpose. She had just been so pleased that he gave in that she had totally forgotten where she was and what she was doing. "What a mess," she thought miserably.

Ginny turned the final corner and opened her mouth to say the password, when someone behind her cleared their throat. Startled, Ginny turned to see Hermione looking at her, a somber look in her eyes. 

"Hermione!," Ginny exclaimed. "You startled me!"

"Sorry," Hermione muttered quietly. Ginny looked at her more closely. Hermione seemed pale and confused, her freckles standing out brightly against her white skin. 

"What's wrong? Why were you standing in the corner?," Ginny asked, approaching her friend. 

Hermione cleared her throat again and Ginny realized that she seemed…nervous almost. "Where did you go, Ginny?"

Ginny looked at her, more confused than ever. "To practice flying," she replied. "But Ravenclaw was practicing, so I couldn't use the pitch." Hermione's expression did not change and she continued to stare at the younger girl. "Why?"

"Because I saw you," Hermione stammered.

"Saw me?," Ginny questioned, confused. Than it hit her and she let out a great gasp, covering her mouth with her hand. "No! It wasn't what it looked like, Hermione!," she exclaimed. "We were just…"

"Just what?," Hermione said stonily. "Just traipsing off into the topiary?"

"Why were you following me anyway?," Ginny asked, suddenly angry. She had _told_ Hermione where she was going. Why was checking up on her?

"You _said _that you were going to practice flying and then when you left I noticed that you didn't bother to take a broomstick," Hermione said icily. "So I decided to see what was so important that you would lie about it. Apparently, that important thing is only your brother's worst enemy."

Ginny didn't know what to say. It was very stupid of her, really, to leave the dorm without a broom. She had just gotten so used to using Draco's that taking her own never occurred to her anymore. "Hermione, let me explain," Ginny sighed.

Hermione crossed her arms over her chest, looking stern, but at the same time hurt. "Than explain it to me. Please."

Ginny ran her fingers through her hair, trying to think where to begin. She took a deep breath. If she told Hermione everything, that would be the equivalent of going straight to Dumbledore. As Head Girl, Hermione wouldn't hesitate to snitch on Draco. She hesitated before beginning to speak. "It all started back at our last match against Slytherin. Afterwards, I kind of lost track of time and when I left the stands, they were mostly deserted. Anyway, I ran into Malfoy and he was doing something he shouldn't have been doing." Hermione opened her mouth, as though to question the younger girl, but shut it quickly as Ginny continued to talk. "We agreed that if I didn't tell, he would teach me how to fly well enough to make the house team. We've been meeting up a few times a week, whenever he didn't have practice himself or we weren't too busy with other stuff. We were supposed to practice tonight, but Ravenclaw was practicing and Draco was just letting me know. Honest."

Hermione looked at her questioningly. "What did he do that was so bad that he'd agree to teach you?," she asked, feigning innocent curiosity. 

"I'm not telling you, Hermione," Ginny replied quietly. "I can't."

Hermione was silent for another moment. "Ginny, why are you protecting him?  
"I'm not _protecting_ him," Ginny exclaimed. "I'm protecting _me_! I wanted to learn how to fly and he's teaching me! End of story!"

"Why did you kiss him?," Hermione asked abruptly.

At this, Ginny's cheeks grew very red. "I don't know," she admitted. "We were arguing about practicing tomorrow. He wanted me to practice, but the Hogsmeade trip is tomorrow and since we're allowed to stay there for dinner, I said that I couldn't practice. But he finally agreed with me and I don't know…I was just so excited, cause of my date with Seamus and all, that I hopped up and kissed him. I'd take it back now, if I could."

Hermione nodded but still looked very confused. "Ginny…you do realize that you're hanging out with Draco Malfoy, don't you? The same guy who has made fun of your family since he knew how to talk? The one whose father almost got your father fired from his job? The one who's practically a Death Eater already?"

"He is not!," Ginny exploded. She took a step back, surprised by her own outburst. Hermione was staring at her in shock. 

"I'd rethink where your loyalties lie," Hermione said in a very serious voice, turning and walking towards the portrait hole. "Nothing good can ever come from a Malfoy." She muttered the password and the portrait opened, the Fat Lady pretending that she hadn't been listening to the whole conversation. Ginny walked in behind Hermione and hurried up to her dorm room.

---

Ginny barely made it to the Great Hall in time to get a bit of toast for breakfast. Most of her fellow students had already come down and than hurried back up to their dorms to get ready for the trip to Hogsmeade. She sat at the table, her head propped up on her hand as she thought about her conversation with Hermione the night before. She was terrified that Hermione would tell Ron and Harry about what she had seen. Ron especially. He would flip out. Possibly murder Draco. She didn't want that to happen. As big of a spoiled brat Draco was, she didn't want him murdered. 

"You all right there, Ginny?"

She jumped, startled, and her elbow slid, causing her to drop her toast and nearly knock her head on the table. She looked up and saw Seamus staring down at her, an amused expression on his face. "Hi," she said meekly, looking forlornly at her bit of toast. "How are you?"

He sat down next to her and gave her a grin. "Wonderful," he replied. "And you?"

"Super," she muttered, picking up another piece of toast. He looked a bit abashed at her unenthusiastic reaction, but just brightened his grin and continued on.

"Look Ginny, I know I asked you to go out for that butterbeer and all…," he began. "But I totally forgot that it was Dean's birthday today and I'd feel kind of bad if I didn't hang out with him. Can I take a rain check?"

Ginny looked at him, slightly stunned. As if the day wasn't horrible enough already, she had been dumped by her date before the date had even begun. She forced a smile to her face. "Sure," she replied brightly. "Next time."

"Right," Seamus said, standing up. "Thanks for understanding, Ginny. Definitely next time."

Ginny kept the stupid smile on her face as Seamus walked down the length of the table and out of the Great Hall. As soon as he was gone she tossed her piece of toast onto the table in annoyance, a scowl crossing her face. She stood up and walked out of the Great Hall, careful to go in the opposite direction of Gryffindor Tower. She wasn't in the mood to see Hermione or Seamus right at the moment. She didn't feel like going to Hogsmeade anymore and decided to avoid the Common Room until she was sure they were gone.

She wandered around the castle for nearly an hour and it was only when she could hear Filch's screechy voice reverberating through the corridors that she climbed the stairs back up to Gryffindor tower. But once up there, surrounded by the annoying underclassmen, she quickly grabbed her winter cloak and walked back out. She didn't feel like being around people right at that moment. 

A few moments later she was walking along one of the huge stone archways that ran around the courtyard. The cold air ruffled her hair and stung her cheeks, but Ginny didn't notice any of this as a stray tear suddenly found its way down her cheek.

Ginny wasn't one to cry for no reason and she didn't know why she was crying now. It wasn't because Seamus had broke off their date- sure she was disappointed, but he had seemed sincerely sorry, so it wasn't that big of a deal. She realized that it probably had more to do with the situation with Hermione and Draco than anything else. 

She reached up with a gloved hand and wiped away the tear as she leaned back against a pillar. The sky was a brilliant, sterling blue and the sun was shining against the freshly fallen snowfall. Suddenly there was a crunching noise and Ginny turned to see someone approaching her through the snow, their figure silhouetted by the sun behind them. 

"What's wrong, Gin?," a voice asked gently.

Ginny's eyes widened a bit. "Harry?," she asked uncertainly. Sure enough as he got closer Ginny realized it was the dark-haired boy…and he was looking at her in a way that she didn't recognize. She wondered vaguely if Hermione had told him about Draco, but decided that she must not have, for Harry would be yelling at her. "Why aren't you in Hogsmeade?"

He came to a stop in front of her and shrugged. "Novelty's worn off, I suppose," he answered. He seemed to be studying her face. "Were you crying?"  
She quickly shook her head. "No! I had something in my eye," she lied.

"Oh…," Harry said quietly and moved a bit closer to her. Ginny sucked in a bit of breath and realized with a start that he was standing much closer than she deemed normal. "Why didn't you go to Hogsmeade?"

"Not in the mood," Ginny replied stiffly. She didn't know what to say. She had thought that her crush on Harry was pretty much gone. Sure, she had been as infatuated as ever at the beginning of the term, but over the last few weeks she hadn't really thought about him much at all. But now, with him standing that close to her, so close that she could smell his soap and see the tiny flecks of gold in his emerald eyes, she started to feel that funny, faint feeling all over again.

"You look really nice today," Harry said, not taking his eyes off of hers. She gulped nervously. What the heck was going on? Why was Harry Bloody Potter suddenly…_hitting on h_e_r_? 

"Erm…thank you," Ginny replied, ever aware that with every second Harry was inching his way closer and closer to her. "I'm going to erm…go now," she said suddenly. 

"No!," Harry exclaimed, grabbing her arm as she started to walk away. Ginny looked back at him, a questioning look in her brown eyes. 

"Why not?," she asked, looking up at him. The faint feeling started to come over her once more. "Damn childhood crushes," she thought to herself.

"I just…," he stammered and Ginny couldn't move as Harry unexpectedly cupped her face in his gloved hands. "I just wanted to do something that I should have done a long time ago."

Ginny couldn't believe it as Harry slowly lowered his face and pressed his soft lips against hers. For a moment Ginny lost herself in his kiss. Her heart was beating so rapidly that she could barely stand up, but suddenly an image flashed in her head that was entirely unexpected and at the same time somehow right. A vision of Draco. And then she knew why Harry was kissing her.

She wrenched herself away from him and stared up at him, the faint feeling gone, only to be replaced by anger. "Why are you kissing me?"

"Because I want to!," Harry exclaimed. He was a terrible liar. You could see on his face that he was as uncomfortable as she suddenly felt.

"No! Because Hermione told you to," Ginny spat out. "You're just doing it to keep me away from Draco." Harry sputtered something in response, but Ginny ignored him and carried on. "Well, it's not going to work! And you wasted your time! There is nothing going on and there never will be anything going on between Draco Malfoy and myself!"

She turned on her heel and stomped away, unaware that across the courtyard, Draco Malfoy had seen and heard everything.

A/N: That was an impossible chapter to write for some reason. However, I would never, ever have gotten it done if not for my awesome reviewers: **bebe**-**chrissy**, **karen**, **Silver Essence**, **Tuilindo **(Blaise is kewl, isn't she?), **Jen**, **Fizzleup**, **Mangolicious**, **sadie (**flying purple cantaloupes? hahaha), **Dracos gal**, **Eleoopy**, **Riauna**, **Aurora Noctifer**, **Lyss**, **Rainbow Dreamer **(there was supposed to be more about the rose in this chapter…but…next one, I promise!), **gohansfan**, **babytigercub14**, **Ginny001**, **Isadora**, **Jenn**, **Crystal**, **miss fizz **(that's what's great about Blaise - we have an official name, but it can be anyone we want!), **Spanish Eyes **(it's gonna be a loooooong one…not entirely on purpose though..haha), & **jumpinmunkie.**

Also, several people have asked me where I got the information on rose meanings, and I FINALLY found the site where I got the info from originally: http://interrose.co.uk/

It's great and has some cool rose info that I took liberties with. More about the rose in the next chapter.

Anyway, PLEASE review! I'm so excited with the response this story is getting and your reviews are TRULY, REALLY the things that keep me motivated to write. So please, even if it's just a few words, review, review, REVIEW!


	7. Chapter Seven

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A/N: Hope you all like this chapter! Let me know what you think! Review, review, review!

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Chapter Seven

Draco stalked back into the castle, his shadow casting a long shape over the cobbled floor. He didn't know why he was so upset. It was just Potter kissing Ginny Weasley. That was the ultimate goal of this whole flying lesson thing anyway. So she could get that four-eyed mongrel. Great Wizards knew _why_ she wanted him in the first place. Geeky, skinny little brat. Not that he cared, Draco told himself, just as he emitted a short, low-throated growl and kicked a nearby suit of armor hard in the knee.

Unfortunately, as Draco had forgotten, the suits of armor at Hogwarts didn't take kindly to being kicked. With a tremendous screech, the suit raised it's ax and brought it down, narrowly missing Draco's left ear. Draco gulped nervously and took off at a full run, fumbling for his wand in his pockets as the armor clanked after him down the hall, still brandishing the ax.

Draco turned a corner and found himself near the abandoned classroom Ginny had found him in a few weeks earlier. Hoping he had lost the armor, he ducked into the room and shut the door behind him. He heard the armor clank past and sighed in relief. 

He crossed the room and pulled aside a tapestry to reveal the wide window seat where he always hid - and jumped as he realized someone was already there.

She looked up, her brown eyes red-rimmed, but unmarred by tears. Draco felt a stab of admiration and…something else, though he couldn't place it.

"What are you doing here?," he asked in a cool tone, still holding the tapestry in his hand, unsure whether he should leave her alone or chase her off. 

"What does it look like?," she replied, her voice flat and husky from the tears she must have shed earlier.

"Looks like you're in _my _place," Draco said, letting go of the tapestry so that they were hidden and slapping the padded seat with his palm. "How'd you find it anyway?"

"I saw you come out from behind here that one time," she replied with a shrug. "I just kind of stumbled into the room." Draco nodded and Ginny moved back into one corner of the window seat and gestured for him to sit down. He hesitated, remembering her harsh words about him out in the courtyard, and then sat down on the other side, his back pressed into the corner between the cold wall and the icy stained glass window. There was a short silence and then Draco cleared his throat. Ginny looked up at him, her eyebrows raised.

"I heard what just happened outside," he finally said.

"What? How?," Ginny gasped, her face growing a bit pale.

"I was passing through the courtyard. Couldn't help but overhear," he mumbled, trying to say it as if he couldn't care less. Which he didn't, he told himself.  
"I'm sorry," she said suddenly in a tiny voice.

"For what?," he asked stiffly.

"For what I said."  
"Why be sorry? It's true, isn't it?," he questioned. "I mean, there's nothing going on with us. I'm just your flying teacher. Right?"  
"Mostly," she finally replied, her brown eyes now staring at the stained glass that rose to the ceiling.

Draco hesitated again."Only mostly true?"  
"I'd say ninety-nine point nine percent true," she said, looking up at him, a slight and surprising smile on her face.

"What about the rest?"

"Well, that's the bit that's not true," she answered promptly.

Draco scowled. "Sarcasm will get you-"

"Everywhere?," she broke in.

"Damn straight," he grumbled. There was another silence between the two of them, but somehow, Draco realized with surprise, it wasn't awkward. 

"Anyway, like I said, I'm sorry," Ginny broke in after a moment.

"No hard feelings," Draco shrugged. 

"I'm glad," she replied and sounded as if she meant it.

"So…erm…why aren't you with The Iri-Finnigan?," Draco asked, trying to sound as if he were just trying to make conversation.

Ginny's face, which had been temporarily brightened, darkened again. "He dumped me," she finally said bluntly.

Draco raised his eyebrows. "Before your date? Wow…I've got to commend you, Ginny. That is truly pathetic."

"Gee…thanks," she said dryly.

"Much obliged," Draco replied. There was another short silence. "So, if I may ask, why are you so upset? Potter was all over you."

Ginny shrugged and started to twist a strand of her hair around her fingers, a look of frustration on her face. "I'm not happy…," she began, but trailed off. Her eyes rolled up and she slumped in her seat, staring miserably at the ceiling. "I'm not happy because the wanker only did it because he thought that there was something going on with you." She avoided his eyes and continued to stare upwards, her cheeks growing slightly pink.

"Where would he get an absurd idea like that?," Draco asked, hoping he sounded disinterested. "You haven't told anyone about our lessons, have you?"

"No!," Ginny exclaimed, finally looking over at him. "But…erm…I guess you should know that yesterday bloody Hermione followed me outside and saw you grab my arm and erm…me…when I uh-," her voice faltered.

"Kissed me?," Draco said, dragging up some courage. "On the cheek?"

"Erm…yes," Ginny replied. She was looking down at the floor now. "Sorry about that also, by the way. I'm sure you spent a good hour scrubbing your face with scalding hot water."

Draco couldn't keep a small smirk at playing on his lips. Did this girl honestly think that he still hated her? He couldn't help it - he let out a small guffaw, which was followed by a full on burst of laughter. Ginny looked up at him, alarmed. She had never seen him really laugh before. Not like that.

"What?! What's wrong?," she exclaimed. "You did didn't you? Scrub your face? It was for more than an hour, wasn't it?"

This tirade only caused Draco to laugh even more heartily. Her face was a now a flaming red and she had a hurt and somewhat angry look in her eyes. "No…no, Ginny," Draco choked, finally stopping his laughter. "It's just…you got so worked up. Of course I didn't go and scrub my face for an hour with scalding water."

"Really?," she asked in an almost timid voice. 

"Fairly tepid water, but only for about fifteen minutes," Draco said with a straight face. Ginny looked unsure of whether or not he was joking and he had to let out another small laugh at that. Damn, it felt good. To just laugh openly. After a moment he heard her own laughter join his and, though neither of them knew what they were really laughing at, the next five minutes were filled with their chuckles.

"Thank you, Draco," Ginny finally said.

Draco looked at her, surprised. "Thank you? For what?"

"For taking my mind off of stuff. Because now," she said with a great sigh, "I have to go back to the common room and face them."

"Are they going to be back from Hogsmeade yet?," Draco asked. 

"Hermione wasn't going to go. She told me the other day. And Harry is here too, obviously. But Ron went. So hopefully I can get this all resolved before he gets back," she said. "Merlin knows what would happen if he found out."

She rose from the window seat and started to push the tapestry away, but hesitated and Draco saw her slowly turn back to look at him. She bit her lip as though she was deciding on something and then, quick as a flash, bent down and placed yet another kiss on his cheek. By the time he realized what had happened, she was gone. He rose one palm up to his cheek. He could still feel his skin tingling pleasantly from where her lips had touched it.

"_Pull yourself together, stupid_," a teeny voice in the back of his head ordered. "_She's a Weasley." _ But to Draco's surprise and utter horrification, he realized that he didn't really care at all.

---

The walk back to Gryffindor Tower was much shorter than Ginny had ever remembered it being. She really didn't want to confront Hermione or Harry, but realized that if she didn't do it now, she probably never would. The Fat Lady looked down at her and Ginny muttered the password before she could ask any questions. The portrait guard was notoriously nosey. 

Ginny held her chin up and walked into the common room. If she could kiss Draco Malfoy on the cheek, she could surely do this. She glanced over towards the corner where her brother and his friends always sat and, sure enough, saw Harry and Hermione sitting there, both of them looking rather glum. They looked up as she walked in, the two of them wearing extremely guilty expressions. 

"Ginny!," Harry exclaimed, drawing the stares of a few first and second years scattered about the room. "I'm so sorry."

He got out of his chair and walked over to her. Ginny avoided his face. Just looking at those green eyes…those lips…it would all just drive her crazy. "As you should be," she finally muttered.

"I'm sorry also," Hermione said, coming up beside Harry. "I didn't mean to tell him. It just sort of slipped out. And what happened outside with Harry and yourself is my fault. I just…ugh…Ginny, I'm so sorry, but Malfoy is bad news. I thought maybe if you and Harry finally got together-"

"_Finally_ got together?," Ginny asked snidely, breaking into the conversation. She couldn't stand this. Hermione standing there and feigning innocence. Damn Hermione and her self-righteous, do-gooder self. "Hermione, you say it like Harry and I ever had a chance! Harry has never seen me as anything other than his best friend's little sister and I've been stupid for six years pretending it's anything else. So, please don't act like this was just a little push towards a happy ending! Harry doesn't care about me! He never has! And that's fine, it's just that I don't appreciate being made a fool of!" Ginny finished her rant and looked at the two seventh-years, both of whom were staring at her with shocked expressions.

"Ginny, I never intended-," Harry sputtered, seeming to search for words.

Ginny's voice softened, but she still had an angry look in her eyes. "I know you didn't _intend _to, Harry. But what you did was really messed up. I mean…you _know_ how I felt about you. It's not fair to take advantage of people's emotions like that."

"I…I know…I'm sorry," Harry said again, sounding as though he genuinely meant it that time. "I think I'm going to go lie down." He wandered off towards his dorm room, looking quite despondent, leaving Ginny alone with Hermione and an audience of eleven and twelve-year-olds.

Neither of them said anything for a long moment. "Ginny, I really am sorry. I didn't mean to tell Harry. And I swear that I won't tell Ron. I really do swear."

Ginny studied the older girl's face and realized that she was telling the truth. "Okay," she muttered. "But please, Hermione. Never do anything like that again."

"I…I won't," Hermione replied earnestly, looking as though she was on the verge of tears. There was another long silence and then Hermione finally broke it: "So, did you ever find out where that rose came from?"

Ginny shook her head. "No, but I was going to look at the card again. See if maybe I recognized the handwriting."

She started up towards her dorm and looked over at Hermione who was still standing alone in the middle of the room. She looked forlorn and lost, and as angry as Ginny was, she didn't want to make anyone feel like that. "I could use your expert opinion on the note," she said. "That is, if you don't mind."

A hesitant smile broke out on Hermione's face. "Really?" Ginny nodded and Hermione's face broke into a full smile and she followed Ginny up the stairs to her dorm.

Ginny opened the door to her room and suddenly let out a huge gasp and stopped dead, causing Hermione to crash into her. 

"What's wrong?," Hermione exclaimed, looking over Ginny's shoulder. Her eyes centered on what Ginny was looking at and she let out her own gasp. "Ginny…your rose!"

The rose, a small, orange bud the day before, had now blossomed and turned a golden-yellow the tips edged with scarlet. "That…that's not normal is it? Flowers changing like that? I mean…it _was _orange and tiny yesterday, wasn't it?"

"I think that's a Mystique Rose," Hermione breathed, walking over and looking at it more closely. "They change form and color with how the giver feels towards the recipient."

"What does yellow mean? And why is it red on the tips?," Ginny asked, suddenly very glad that she and Hermione had made up.

"Well…yellow is traditionally for friendship, so it's obviously someone that you must know pretty well," she trailed off. Ginny looked at her, trying to absorb what Hermione was telling her, at the same time looking very disappointed with the fact that it had gone from 'budding desire' to 'friendship' in one day. "But the red edges…Ginny, red tips on a yellow flower means that someone is falling in love." Hermione looked up at her and shook her head slowly. "You really have an admirer. Those roses cost a bundle."  
Ginny had picked up the vase where she was keeping the rose and out of curiosity, unfolded the note. It still had the same message and there was nothing distinctive about the handwriting. Disappointed, she set it back down and just stared at it. She truly had no idea who it was from. 

Hermione was still staring at the flower and Ginny noticed her move closer to examine it again. "Do you notice how the yellow is very light at the bottom and darker at the top?" Ginny nodded. "Well," Hermione said, "It's wavering. It's almost like the person who sent this isn't sure about what they're feeling for you. I don't know if they even realize how they feel. Are you sure you don't know who it's from?" 

Ginny nodded. "No clue," she murmured. "But I have to find out."

A/N: As always, much thanks to all my reviewers: **baybe3hflip**, **nyghthawkwingchild** (Thanks for the loooong review. I looooove long reviews! And sorry about the flower color, but not all yellow is bad!), **Crystal**, **Xela**, **Zuzu**, **Ginny001**, **MochaDream**, **Honey666 **(It wasn't REALLY a cliffy….not on purpose anyway ; )), **gohansfan**, **Butterflysky **(Your review made me laugh…the little "sorry you bastard" comment had me rolling), **Angel Tears**, **Dreamoftf**, **mandy**, **draco'sgirl**, **Jen, Isadora**,** Lady Megan, frananddragon**, **Rainbow Dreamer **(I love to answer questions and I'd be more than happy to read your fics, but there are two rainbow dreamers on ff.net - which one are you?), **karen**, **rainmuse**, **Miah Tolensky**, **Silver Essence**, **Corky **(It was funny? Well…that's okay!), **kristendotcom**, **Lucifer**, **ice angel**, **Missfizz**, **Ace Of Spades**, **opal**.**star**, **hpangel **(thanks for the compliments), **tropix**, **baby-grassie**, **Simply Bewitching 1**, & **Baby**.

Anyway, hope you all liked this chapter and please REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW and let me know what you think!!!!


	8. Chapter Eight

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A/N: Hmmm…I have mixed feelings about this chapter. Some parts of it I LOVE and other parts…not so much…Ron just wasn't cooperating. He had to be serious and I just can't write serious Ron…veeeeery difficult for me. But anyway, hope you all enjoy this chapter and PLEASE review! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE?!?! (More comments on bottom.)

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Chapter 8

Ginny awoke the next morning with one thing on her mind: finding out who had sent her that rose. Oh, and avoiding Harry Potter at all costs. So two things, she amended.

After she got dressed, she made her way down to the common room, her ears perked for any mention of her name. The circular room was nearly empty though, most of the students already down at breakfast. Slinging her book bag over her shoulder, Ginny crossed the room and made her way out the portrait hole.

"Ginny! Hey, wait up!," a voice called just as the door began to close. She turned to see Seamus running towards her. He barely made it out before the door closed completely. He stopped in front of her, trying to catch his breath. "I just wanted to apologize again about canceling our date."

Ginny shrugged her shoulders. "it's all right," she replied. "I understand. Dean's your best friend."

A relieved expression crossed his face. "Oh, good. So…can I walk you down to breakfast?"

Ginny grinned at him and nodded. Seamus's face lit up in a huge smile and he interlocked his arm in hers. They made their way down towards eh Great Hall and had just reached the entrance when Ginny spoke again. 

"Hey, you remember that rose I got on Valentine's Day?"

Seamus nodded. "Yeah, an orange bud or something."

"Did you…erm…send it to me?," she questioned, honestly expecting him to say yes. 

Seamus hesitated. "Well…no," he finally said. "But if it's roses you want I can give you a million."

Ginny just laughed and shook her head, but inside she felt extremely confused. Who else could it be?

---

"Draco, can I borrow your Defense Against the Dark Arts homework?"

Draco looked over and saw Pansy staring at him miserably. She really was an awful student. He tossed the parchment toward her and resumed his watch on the great double doors. Next to him, Blaise smirked.

"You know, just because you stare at the doors doesn't mean she'll come in and kiss you again," she drawled.

Draco looked over at her, his eyes shooting arrows. "Shut up, Blaise," he growled.

"You shouldn't have told me if you didn't want me to tease you," she replied, matter-of-factly. "I told you to stop moping and you didn't take my advice, so I'm going to make fun of you."

"I shouldn't have told you, period," Draco said grouchily. 

Blaise just snickered and lowered her voice. "Aww, but then you'd have to keep your little crush all to yourself."

"I do _not _have a _crush_," Draco said loudly and indignantly , drawing the stares of several of his fellow Slytherins.

"Oh, are you in love then?," Blaise questioned, on the verge of laughter.

Draco looked scandalized. "In love? Are you mad? That's not even funny! And I'm not watching the doors for her. I'm just _looking _at the doors."

Blaise snorted. "Right. And I'm the heiress of Hufflepuff."

Draco rolled his eyes and took a sip of pumpkin juice. "Just be quiet."

"Such harsh words for a man with such a torrid secret," Blaise murmured.

Draco slammed his goblet on the table and looked at her, his gray eyes stormy. "SHUT UP, ZABINI!"

The Slytherin table grew silent. Blaise's face grew an unbelievable shade of scarlet before she replied: "Don't you ever talk to me like that, Draco Malfoy. You know I'll slap you straight across your smirking, pointy little face." She hissed this so low that only Draco could hear it. The other Slytherins returned to their food.

Draco didn't even look at her. "My face is not pointy."

"Yes it is…it's-," she broke off as she realized he wasn't paying a bit of attention to her. His eyes were on the red-head who had just entered the room. And she wasn't alone. Blaise recognized the guy with her as Seamus Finnigan, who she had often thought was far too good-looking to be a Gryffindor. But he did have all those lame Gryffindor qualities, which brought him down a great deal in Blaise's eyes. Their arms were intertwined and if the grin on Finnigan's face was any indication, they weren't exactly quarreling. "Well, would you look at that? A Weasel and the Celtic Casanova." 

"That's not funny," Draco mumbled again. "Not funny at all."

Blaise dropped her fork onto the table with a clatter. "That's _it_," she exclaimed, grabbing her book bag. "I'm sick of this rubbish!"

Draco watched with astonished eyes as Blaise stood up and slid off of the bench and very quickly made her way towards Ginny. "Blaise!," Draco yelped, trying to get her attention, but not wanting to draw too much attention to himself. Crabbe and Goyle looked at him curiously. He ignored them and buried his face in his hands just as Blaise reached the red-head.

---

"Blimey, watch out," Seamus suddenly said, stopping in mid-sentence and pulling Ginny over a few feet. 

Ginny looked up at him, startled, and then followed his gaze to Blaise Zabini, who was striding past them, walking directly where Ginny had just been standing. She was walking very quickly and gave Ginny a snotty smirk as she passed and then grinned, in what Ginny thought could almost be a flirtatious gesture, at Seamus. Then she turned her head with a snap and sauntered out the doors.

"What was _that_ all about?," Seamus asked, shaking his head in incredulity. "Those Slytherin girls…real mental cases, they are." He glanced over at the Slytherin table. "Not that the guys are much better."

Ginny followed Seamus to the Gryffindor table, but peeked over at the far table. She could kind of see what Seamus was on about with the Slytherin boys. Crabbe and Goyle seemed to be building a snowman from their breakfast food. Malcolm Baddock wasn't eating at all, but was glaring around the Great Hall, looking very suspiciously at a pair of Ravenclaw first years who seemed to be doing nothing more than eating their breakfasts. Graham Pritchard was viciously stabbing his toast with a very sharp knife, an angry scowl on his face. Yep, a right bunch of nutters, Ginny had to agree. 

But then her gaze rested on Draco. He had his face buried in his hands and as she looked at him, he happened to glance up and meet her eyes. He opened his mouth and then looked past her at the Entrance Hall doors and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Then, to her utter and complete shock, he offered her a small smile before leaning back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest, and started talking to a sixth-year that Ginny didn't know.

"I saved you a seat, Ginny," a voice said. Ginny looked down and realized that she was already halfway along the Gryffindor table. Hermione was staring up at her, as if expecting Ginny to forget that they had made up and kick her or something. Ginny just smiled gratefully and plopped down next to her, her back to the Slytherin table. Seamus sat down on her other side, shot her one last grin, and then started talking to Dean about what they had gotten up to the day before.

"Thanks, Hermione," Ginny said, picking up her goblet of pumpkin juice and pushing all thoughts of Draco out of her head. She reached into her bag and pulled out a long, slender box. 

"What's that?," Hermione asked, wrinkling her brow.

"The box my wand came in," Ginny answered, taking a bite of toast.

"But why are you carrying it around?," Hermione questioned, looking confused.  
"Oh! I'm keeping the rose in it," Ginny replied. "So I can see if it changes color again."  
Hermione nodded. "Good idea. I never did get a chance to look at that note. Do you have it with you?"

Ginny reached into her bag and pulled out the small piece of paper and then handed it to Hermione. "And by the way, it's not Seamus. I asked him," she added quietly.

Hermione nodded. "I figured as much. Seamus's idea of romantic would be tickets to a Kenmare Kestrels match." Ginny laughed and was about to ask Hermione what she thought about the note when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked up to see Ron looking down at her, his face, for once very serious.

"Yes, Ron?," she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I…erm…would like to talk to you for a moment, please," he said, sounding as though he was trying very hard to stay calm. "It's important."

Ginny looked over at Hermione, a panicked expression on her face. She wouldn't have…couldn't have! She had sworn not to. But Hermione looked as puzzled as Ginny and when she caught her eye, she only shook her head and shrugged. Ginny reluctantly stood and followed Ron out of the room towards the Entrance Hall.

"What's wrong, Ron?," she asked, in what she hoped was an innocent tone.

"You know what's wrong," Ron said, looking very peeved.

"No…not really," Ginny admitted. She felt a stab of fear. Ron would _kill_ Draco. Ginny had no doubt of that. "I mean…what…do you mean?," she finally stammered.

"I mean that you need to be careful with him! He's not the kind to settle down with a girlfriend," Ron exclaimed, his cheeks flaming. "Look, Gin, I know you don't want to hear advice on your love life from your older brother, but I just feel like I have to warn you."

"But…," Ginny stuttered. How did Ron know that she was starting to have feelings for Draco? Was it that obvious? "How did you find out?," she gasped.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Ginny, come on! I'm a bit dense, but not _that _much! You bloody walked into the Great Hall with him, looking all chummy!"

Ginny nearly fainted from relief. "Seamus? You mean Seamus!," she exclaimed.

Ron looked at her, bewildered. "Of course I meant Seamus! Who else would I mean?"

Ginny just shook her head. "I have no clue. Just a bit tired still," she lied, grinning broadly. "Well, I had better go finish breakfast." She turned and left her brother staring after her, muttering something about 'mad girls'.

She sat back down next to Hermione and looked over at the older girl to tell her what had happened out in the hall, but paused just as she was about to open her mouth. Hermione's face was a bit pale and drawn and her brown eyes were widened in what could only be described as shocked. Ginny followed her gaze and saw that she was staring at the note that had come with the Mystique Rose. "Hermione? What's wrong? Do you know who the rose is from?"

Hermione seemed to snap out of it as if she just realized Ginny was there. "No!," she exclaimed. "I don't. I was just thinking about something else. But I need to go to the…erm…library," she stammered. She handed Ginny back the note and Ginny stared after her as she practically ran out of the Great Hall. 

---

Draco left his last class of the day and yawned loudly as he made his way back to the Common Room to drop off his books before dinner. He had just rounded the last corner when someone stepped out of the shadows created by a looming pillar. He sneered.

"What do you want, Granger?," he snarled. The bushy-haired girl was standing in front of him, her lips pursed in a manner very reminiscent of Professor McGonagall. She didn't answer him and Draco just rolled his steely gray eyes and started past her. "If you're not going to say anything, why don't you go back into that dark little corner? That's the best I've ever seen you."

"I know, Malfoy," she finally said as he was about to say the password to open the wall and he turned to look at her, one eyebrow raised. 

"You know that you look better in a dark corner? Wow, maybe you are clever after all!," he exclaimed, trying to sound like he was proud of her.

"Shut up, Malfoy," Granger hissed. "I know that you sent that rose to Ginny."

Draco tried to look as though he had no clue what she was talking about, but for one of the first times in his life, he failed miserably at controlling himself. He was in too much shock. "Very brainy of you, Granger. May I ask how you know?"

"I…I…," Granger stuttered and Draco realized with a smirk that she hadn't expected him to admit to it. "I help Professor McGonagall grade papers sometimes and I know your handwriting," she shrugged. 

"You tell anyone and I'll make sure that you regret it. It's none of your business anyway," Draco said, hoping he sounded threatening. Apparently it worked, because Granger shuddered and took a step back from him. "I mean that, Granger." He turned to say the password, but Granger spoke up again.

"That rose…it said you were falling in love with her," she said feebly. Draco turned to see her looking at him questioningly. 

He said the password quietly and the wall slid open. He smirked at her. "Well, what do you know?," he muttered. "I guess those roses really do work." Taking delight in Granger's horrified expression, Draco stepped into the Common Room, trying to forget what he had just admitted.

A/N: **So, what did y'all think? Let me know, PLEASE! I LOVE long reviews, short review, medium reviews, and reaaaaalllllyyyy long reviews (wink, wink). I honestly love to hear your comments. They really make my day, as lame as that may sound. **

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Before my thanks, just to the people who are wondering how Ginny can be so dense…erm…well…she just is. Let's just say that Draco would be the last person she would expect it to be from really…not that she hasn't wished it on more than a few occasions.

Much thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter: **Jen **(I see your point. Hermione still thinks that Draco is the devil incarnate though…haha. Thanks for the loooong review), **The Marauder's Legacy, kristendotcom, KeeperOfTheMoon, Melanie Pointe, Kitty, MochaDream, hpangel **(Thank you for your review! It really made me happy!)**, Baby, txt-eva, Ace Of Spades, sadie (say-dee, Imp, Lady Megan, kitkat87, Ginny001, Dracos gal, Sakura1287, Rainbow Dreamer, Missfizz **(The rose doesn't really exist as far as I know…I wish it did though. Wouldn't that be nice?), **Cassandra Sisenta or Krey-Zey, Rebuky, Xela, Dramaqueen, Draco's gurl **(yes, I made up the rose…I am bloody brillian…bwa hahaha), **Isadora, Red Magic Marker, karen, Pegasia Silverfeather, SeZzA, Sayo, slaveofkarma14, Butterflysky **(I'm sorry…I'll try not to post during Smallville anymore…hahaha), **Crystal, Eleoopy, frananddragon **(thank you for the sweet review and for reviewing all the time)**, baby-grassie, **and anyone else I may have missed. 

So let me know what you think? Is the story moving too fast? Too slow? Do you love it? Hate it? Suggestions? 

Also, if anyone has any questions, you can e-mail me at cassi0peia@hotmail.com . (That's a zero in the middle, just in case you're confused). Don't hesitate to drop me a line. Okie doke, now get to reviewing! Mwah!

REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!


	9. Chapter Nine

A/N: Eeek! Extreme writers block! Need help! Let me know what you think! Review, review, review! More comments at bottom…

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Chapter Nine

Ginny walked out onto the Quidditch pitch that night, still in her robes from class. She hadn't had time to go back to the Common Room before dinner and she was so tired that just the _thought_ of climbing seven flights of stairs to change and then coming right down again had exhausted her so much that she had just decided to go out onto the pitch a bit early. She tossed her bag to the ground and sat next to it, a sheet of crimson parchment clutched in her hand. She focused on it and read it again:

****

Come and Try Out!

Gryffindor Quidditch Team

Looking for new seeker, chasers, and keeper

Sunday, 1 March 1998

3:00 P.M.

Contact Harry Potter for more information 

Her stomach started to twist up into a tiny ball of nervousness. In all the excitement in the last few days, the thoughts of the Quidditch tryouts had been completely voided from her consciousness. Setting the paper aside, she flipped open the top of her bag and pulled out the long, slender box where she had been keeping her rose and placed it in her lap. She had looked at it earlier that morning, but it was still the same color. She started to pull the lid off, just to check it out, when she heard footsteps behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see Draco approaching, his face contorted in a wide yawn. "_Wow_," Ginny thought, bemused. "_He even looks cute when his face is all screwed up_." She quickly forced this unusual observation from her head and started to stand to greet him.

"Don't bother," Draco mumbled, collapsing next to her, tossing his broomsticks to the side. "What's that?" She followed his gaze to her lap where the box still sat. "A flobberworm farm?"

She looked at him, mystified. "Why would I want one flobberworm, let alone a whole farm of them?"

Draco just shrugged. "Different strokes," he mumbled. "So, what is it really?"

"A gift I got for Valentine's day," she replied, a slight smile coming to her face even as she inwardly pondered why she was even telling Draco this. She was sure he'd find a way to make a joke out of it. But to her amazement, he only looked mildly surprised.

"What kind of gift?," he asked in a quiet voice. 

"A Mystique Rose," she replied. She waited for his response. What would he say? Draco wasn't nearly as snotty as he used to be, but he could still insult with the best of them. Although, she realized, a bit startled, he hadn't really insulted _her_ in a couple of weeks.

"Really? What color is it?," he finally said, surprising Ginny. That was the absolute last thing she had expected.

"Oh!," she exclaimed. "Well, this morning it was yellow with a red tip. That means-".

"Falling in love," Draco said in a low voice. 

Ginny looked at him in astonishment. "How do you know so much about rose colors?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "I'm a decent Herbology student," he answered with a shrug. "So...can I see it?"

Ginny hesitated. What if it had changed color? What if it was suddenly dying and black? Then he'd think she was a liar. "Erm...I don't know...," she finally said.

Draco looked confused. "Why not?"

"I just...well, if it's not yellow with a red tip, don't blame me," she said, biting her lip.

Draco snickered quietly and took the box from her and pulled the lid off of it. Ginny couldn't see the rose from where she sat, only Draco's face. He stared into the box for a long moment and then looked back at her then back at the box again. He continued this process for nearly a minute before Ginny finally lost her patience. 

"Is there something wrong with it?," she finally exclaimed, straining to get a look.

He held the box away so that she couldn't see. "Nope. But it's not yellow with a red tip."

"It changed color?," Ginny squealed, fighting even harder for the box. Draco laughed at the little red-head's attempts. "It's not funny!," she grumbled, settling down as she realized that he wasn't going to give the box up. "What color is it?"

"Here you go," he finally said, handing it to her. "I just wanted to see you fight for it."

Ginny stuck her tongue out at him and then eagerly looked down into the box. She gasped slightly. The rose, as Draco had said, was no longer the yellow and red of that morning. It was now a pale pink color, so soft and velvety that it hardly looked real. "Well, Mr. Herbology. What does this mean?"

Draco looked down at the rose again and then back up at Ginny and she gasped at the look in his eyes. His gray eyes, which she had always thought were cold and steely, seemed to be endless pools of silver gossamer. She felt as though she was falling into them and suddenly had the enormous urge to kiss him on more than the cheek. She sucked in a deep breath and tried to focus on what Draco was saying.

"Light pink. Hmm...admiration, grace, joy, sweetness...the beginnings of true love," Draco said, his eyes never leaving hers. "It's a very good color."

"Yes...yes, I agree," Ginny stammered, gulping nervously. "_Think of the person who gave you this rose, Ginny_," the teeny voice in her head commanded. _"Don't ruin what could be the beginning of true love by falling for Draco Malfoy_." She sucked in a deep breath and then smiled pertly. "Shall we get started? Lots to learn before the first."

"The first?," Draco slurred, looking as though he had just been awoken. "What's the first?"

Ginny laughed nervously, his endless eyes still the focus of her thoughts. "The Quidditch trials. Imagine, you only have to deal with me for two more weeks."

Draco stood up reluctantly and looked around for his brooms. "Yeah," he finally said. "Lucky me."

---

It had been one week since the day that Draco had slipped and let Granger know how he felt about Ginny. One _long_, agonizing week. He spent most of his meals trying to inconspicuously watch the Gryffindor table and attempting to scare Granger into silence by looking at her. She would sometimes catch his gaze and roll her eyes, but that was the extent of her reaction. He was much more satisfied when Ginny would look over at him. She would always give him a shy smile, granted nobody was looking at her. Which they usually weren't, Draco thought somewhat sorrowfully.

Most of Ginny's friends, it seemed, were her older brother's friends. She seemed to be rather close to Granger. The two were always next to each other at meals and he would occasionally catch glimpses of them between classes. She didn't really talk to Harry, which Draco supposed was the result of Potter's little attempt at seduction. He intermittently saw her walking with a couple of girls who looked like they were in her year, but their conversations seemed to consist of much giggling and such. The only other people she talked to, that he knew of, were the boys in Potter and the elder Weasley's year - Longbottom, Thomas, and of course, The Irish Louse. 

"Damn The Irish Louse," Draco thought. It was bad enough that he had found out that Blaise fancied him, but the fact that he was always hanging all over Ginny was enough to make him ill. He could understand that she was friends with so many guys, after all she had grown up that way. But did she really always have to be followed around by The Irish Louse? That smiley little wanker. Draco despised him nearly as much as he despised Potter.

He suddenly felt a slight prickling on the back of his neck, as though someone was watching him. He wearily turned his head and saw Blaise staring at him, her chin resting on her palm. 

"What?," he mumbled, preparing himself for her chastising words.

"Nothing," she replied, breaking away her gaze. She picked up her fork and began to eat her dinner. "I was just wondering how long I could stare at you before you realized it."

Draco cocked his brow. "Why would you want to do that?"

She shrugged. "Don't know. Just bored, I guess." There was a moment of quiet before she spoke again. "Actually, Draco, I was wondering something."

"What's that?," Draco asked, yawning, as though he couldn't care less.

"How come," Blaise began, "almost as soon as you started giving Weasley those lessons, you stopped hiding out in corners and coming back smelling like smoke."

Draco stared at her as though she were a complete idiot. "I think the answer to that is quite obvious, Blaise. It's the same reason your income has gone down recently."

Blaise looked a bit annoyed at this statement. "You _know_ what I mean, Draco," she muttered. "I mean, you've had plenty of girlfriends before. None of them made you stop smoking."

Draco shrugged. "None of the girlfriends I've had did anything to calm my nerves."

"And she does?," Blaise questioned.

"I never said that," Draco replied. "I simply said that none of my girlfriends-"

"So, is she your girlfriend?," Blaise interrupted.

Draco let out a slight, aggravated laugh. "Do you realize what an asinine question that was, Blaise? You just asked me if Ginny Weasley was my girlfriend."

"So?"

"So? So that's a stupid question. Even if I…I _wanted_ her to be my girlfriend, it would never happen," Draco replied.

"Why not?"

"Because," Draco answered in an exasperated voice. 

"That's not a reason," Blaise countered, shaking her head.

Draco narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice enough so that he was sure that only Blaise could hear him. "It's enough of a reason for me."

"That's stupid," Blaise said in frustration. "_You're _stupid, Draco! You love her!"

Draco's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "I most certainly do _not_!," he exclaimed, his mind reeling. He had only told Granger because she had figured out the rose thing already. Plus, he knew that the last thing she would ever do would be tell Ginny. Granger wanted him to seem like an evil bastard, no matter what.

"You most certainly _do_," Blaise spat back, drawing a few curious stares from those around them. She shot them all a death glare and they returned to their meals. She dropped her voice. "I see the way you look at her. I hear the way your voice changes when you talk about her, even though you try damn hard to hide it. Dammit, Draco, she's definitely not my first choice for you. Definitely not. But I know love when I see it and you are bloody in love with her."

"Oh, like you would know anything about love, Blaise," Draco sneered, suddenly very angry. Who was _she_ to call him out like that? How dare she presume to think that she could possibly know what was going on in his head? It was ridiculous. Absolutely preposterous. "You've never loved anyone."

Blaise's smirk faded from her face. She looked utterly and completely shaken. "That, Draco Malfoy," she said quietly, as she rose from the table, "is just one of the many things that you're wrong about."

---

"Ginny, can I talk to you?"

"What about?," Ginny asked vaguely, tearing her eyes away from the conflict across the room and towards her friend. Hermione looked worried. "Is something wrong?"

Hermione hesitated. "No…well…yes. In a way." She sighed. "Can we go somewhere quiet to talk?"  
Ginny was famished, but realized Hermione was dead set on having this conversation, so she nodded and grabbed a roll, following the older girl from the room.

"So, what's wrong?," Ginny asked as they aimlessly wandered the first floor.

"I just wanted to tell you something," Hermione said. "This is none of my business and I hope you don't hate me for interfering, but-"

"Miss Granger, _there_ you are!," a voice suddenly boomed, breaking off Hermione in mid-sentence. McGonagall cam striding down the hall towards them. "Sorry to interrupt, but I really must speak to you. Head Girl business." 

Hermione looked between her teacher and her friend in dismay. "It's okay, Hermione," Ginny quickly said. "We can talk later."

Hermione looked slightly appeased, but still worried as she nodded than followed McGonagall down the hall, leaving Ginny alone.

Ginny decided just to head up to Gryffindor Tower. The Slytherin Quidditch team was practicing that evening for their match that coming Saturday, so she didn't have her lessons. In fact, she only had one lesson left with Draco before Sunday. 

Ginny rounded the corner just about to go up the steps, when she heard a quiet sobbing from behind a wide column in the corner. She hesitated, then followed the hushed weeping. A girl sat hunched over on the floor, her brown tresses spilling over her face. Despite her facial features being obscured, Ginny recognized her: Blaise Zabini.

The red-head hesitated. What should she do? Go get a professor? Try and comfort the Slytherin girl? For a fleeting second she even considered going to get Draco, but decided against it. Taking a deep breath, she stepped closer to the crying brunette.

"Erm…Blaise? Do you need some help?"

Blaise looked up and fixed Ginny with her red-rimmed green eyes. "Not from _you_ of all people."

Ginny bristled slightly. She was _only_ trying to be polite. "Well…fine," she said in a huff. She turned and started to walk away.

"Wait," Blaise suddenly croaked and Ginny was so surprised that she stopped and turned around. "I'm…I apologize for being rude. Come…talk to me…please?"

Ginny bit her lip, trying to decide what to do. She finally walked over and slid down onto the floor next to Blaise.

--- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- 

A/N: *Sigh* I don't know what happened. I'm just having…issues with the story right now. I hope you all liked this chapter though. Let me know.

Much, much, much thanks to all who reviewed Chapter Eight: **Sabra **(You'll find out soon enough!), **Mocha Dream **(Thank you for the looooong review and all the sweet comments), **Ace Of Spades **(I won't let Hermione do the honors…), **Silver Essence** (You threw a monkey at me?! I feel so…honored…hehe), **Imp **(No snogging yet…sorry), **hpangel **(Thanks for the long, extremely encouraging review), **BrittishBabe**, **Sakura1287 **(I'm glad you liked that line. It just kind of popped into my head as I was typing…and it fit…yay for sudden revelations of the fanfic type), **karly **(Thank you for reassuring me that I don't need to have them smooching yet. Yay!), **Rubyjuls1722**, **Jen **( I know what you mean about reading about Draco in the books. It's kind of a downer, isn't it?), **Dracos gal **(I'm sorry! I'll be more careful next time…this time…every time!), **AVLV**, **opal.star**, **doublekiss**, **Miss. Charlet**, **frananddragon **(Eeek! Don't go bald! Everything will be all right! And I've read the first part of the trilogy, but not the sequel and erm…three-quel…lol.), **Shyanne**, **KeeperOfTheMoon**, **annie**, **bynkee**, **Riauna**, **mary**, **charismatic**, **Rebuky**, **Rainbow Dreamer **(I like gushing compliments as much as constructive criticism…it's A-OK with me…haha), **Ginny001**, **Cassandra Sisenta or Krey-Zey**, **Molly**, **ferggirl99**, **Missfizz **(the different color thing is true, however the rose is not…as you probably figured out…haha), **JeNnSyLvAnIa**, **Isadora**, **Eraserhead **(Yay for G/D…we will convert you yet!), **Melzie**, **Ruler of the World **(just for you…not a single muttering or smirk in the entire chapter…hurrah!), **Space Lion**, **SeZza**, **gohansfan **(I'm glad you like the way I have the characters…it's not just me…whew), **Ariadna**, **Sayo**, **kitty'89**, **dreamofTF **(Happy Birthday!!!), **Kitty**, **Kitycat87**, **Katie**, **seekerpeeker**, **Red Magic Marker**, **Kerry**, **Dragon's Cat**, **Simply Bewitching 1**, **Crystal**, **Annabella Walter**, and **Eleoopy**. 

Hmmm…what else did I want to add? Oh yeah, I few things I noticed from your reviews:

1) Seamus is not a fan favorite…should I make him a bit more lovable? Or more annoying? Let me know.

2) Hermione is really nosey. I didn't realize how bad I was making her. Oh well- Hermione is, as Hermione does.

And 

3) Draco is yummy.

As always, thanks for reading, and review, review, review!!!  


  



	10. Chapter Ten

A/N: Hope y'all like…review, review, review! More at bottom!

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Chapter Ten

Ginny could hardly conceive an odder predicament. She was wedged in a corner, sitting on the dirty ground, next to quite possibly the most sinister of all the Slytherin seventh years.

What an odd sight they must have made. Ginny slumped uneasily against the wall, her long red-gold hair falling down her back over her worn second-hand robes. Next to her, Blaise lounged almost comfortably, as though she were used to hanging out in dank corridors, which Ginny surmised, she very well may have been.

Five minutes had passed and Blaise had not uttered a word since she had requested that Ginny stay. Ginny felt her stomach contract in hunger and she thought wistfully of the meal just ending in the Great Hall. She wondered idly what she had done with the roll she had snagged from the table, but realized she hadn't a clue. To her horror her bully suddenly lurched again and growled loudly. She stared head, hoping Blaise hadn't heard, but she the brunette suddenly snickered and Ginny glanced over to see an amused smirk on her face. Blaise pulled a box from the pocket of her perfectly tailored robe.

"Bean?," she asked simply. Ginny looked at the box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans and hesitated before grabbing a few.

"Thanks," she murmured. She examined a red and white on and finally popped it into her mouth. "Yum…spaghetti," she said happily, temporarily forgetting where she was.

Blaise laughed. "That's Draco's favorite. He-" She broke off in mid-sentence. "Her…erm…likes them."

Ginny was surprised. She thought that Blaise and Draco were very close. Not close enough for Blaise to fell odd talking about him though, apparently. "So…," Ginny said slowly," do you want to talk about what's bothering you?"  
Blaise shrugged, her normal scowl back on her face. "Not particularly."

Ginny sighed ruefully. "Then can I go?"

"No," Blaise replied shortly, as though the idea was out of the question.

"Why not?," Ginny asked, exasperated. "You don't want to talk and I'm sorry, but sitting in silence with a Slytherin is a bit unnerving."

Blaise rolled her eyes. "Oh, get over it already," she exclaimed.

"Over _what_?," Ginny asked in surprise.

"The whole 'Slytherins are evil' thing! We're sly. We're cunning. We're ambitious. But evil? Not really. Not all of us, anyway."

"I never said-," Ginny began to protest, but Blaise cut her off.

"You don't have to _say_ it. I can tell. You should know that by now, anyway," she said in a know-it-all sort of voice that reminded Ginny vaguely of Hermione. Well, of Hermione with a vicious attitude.

"What do you mean?," Ginny finally asked uncertainly. "How would I know that all Slytherins aren't bad."  
"Well, you certainly don't think that Draco is evil," Blaise said, cocking her eyebrows. Ginny's stomach twisted a bit. How much did Blaise know? "I mean, you kissed him." 

Ginny felt her cheeks blaze bright bed. "How do you-?"

"He's my best friend," Blaise said, interrupting her again. "He tells me things." Ginny's eyes widened even further and she knew that she must have looked like a deer caught in wand lights. "Don't worry. Good things."

Ginny felt a twinge of surprise. "Good things?"

"Yeah, good things," Blaise said smugly.

"Like…like what?," Ginny stammered.

Blaise's lips curled into an entertained smirk. "I can't _tell _you! That's wouldn't be a very good friend, would it?"

Ginny frowned. "I supposed not," she reluctantly agreed.

"Although…," she drawled.

Ginny couldn't help herself. The curiosity was getting the best of her. "What?"

"If you must know…," Blaise continued.

"If she must know, I'll tell her myself," an icy-cold voice drawled suddenly, causing both girl's heads to snap up in shock.

---

Draco couldn't believe it. He had left dinner a few minutes early in order to go back to the common room and change before Slytherin Quidditch practice, but had suddenly heard whispered voices coming from behind a pillar in a corner and to his shock, his own name among the whisperings.

He had gone around the corner and felt a double-shock when he saw who was talking. Blaise sat on the floor and next to her, Ginny Weasley. He couldn't have imagined it- not even in his worst nightmares. The girl who knew all of his secrets sitting next to the girl who a lot of his secrets were about.

Now they were both staring up at him as though he were He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or something, identical expressions of horror on their faces. Blaise stood up and dusted off the bottoms of her robes. She looked at Draco with mild indignation. "Then why don't you?," she muttered and without another word, strode away.

He considered going after her, perhaps to apologize for being a terrible ass earlier, or at the very least to find out what she had told Ginny, but found that he couldn't move. He was rooted to the spot and little Ginny Weasley was staring up at him, her brown eyes slightly frightened and unsure.

He cleared his throat nervously and stood over her. He hadn't been able to get the previous night out of his head. The way that she had looked at him when they had been discussing her rose. Dammit, if she only _knew_ that it was from him. But she had no idea, he realized. And if she did, it would ruin it for her. Nope, Draco decided, it was better for her to think that it was from some Prince Charming than from the Prince of Slytherin. 

He extended a hand towards her to help her up and she looked at it a bit suspiciously before taking it. He wrapped his long fingers around her palm and pulled her to her feet. But when she was securely balanced, he couldn't make himself let go of her hand. "What did Blaise tell you?," he finally asked, staring down at her.

Ginny looked up at him and Draco could see the nervousness etched in her facial expressions. It was funny, he realized: Out on the Quidditch pitch, it was like another world. Another world where their families and obligations didn't exist. They could just be themselves…admit through actions that they didn't hate each other. But here inside the castle walls, it felt as though they were cursed. 

"Nothing," she replied finally, her voice a bit shaky. She swallowed nervously and looked down at her hand, which was still enclosed in Draco's. He gently squeezed her palm and she seemed to visibly relax. "All she told me," she began, her voice now much smoother and less shaky, "was that you said good things about me. I just wanted to know what those things were."

"Then why didn't you just ask?," Draco asked, as though this was the most obvious thing in the world.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "One, she just told me like five minutes ago. Two, wouldn't it be a bit odd for me to walk up to you and ask you what nice things you said about me?"

Draco just shrugged. "Yeah, I suppose."

"You don't just suppose," Ginny sighed. "You _know_ that it would be weird." A small, wicked smile crossed her face. "So…_did _you say good things about me?"

Draco felt himself smiling back at her. He was helpless to control it. When she looked at him like that…he couldn't help himself…She was so beautiful. "Maybe," he replied.

"I hope you're not expecting me to beg, Draco," she said quietly, only half joking. Draco realized with a start that her face was only a few centimeters away from his. When had _that _happened? 

He sucked in a deep breath, trying to look completely calm. He reluctantly dropped her hand and tried to ignore, but at the same time store in his mind, the disappointed look that crossed her face. "You're just going to have to," he replied, trying to sound snide, but only coming off as amusing. 

Ginny just smiled at him. "I'm a Weasley. Weasley's don't beg."

"They do if they're talking to a Malfoy," he said, forcing himself to take a step away from her. It was just too tempting, standing that close to her. "Listen," he finally said, running his fingers through his loose hair. "I know we don't have your lessons tonight, but can you meet me on the pitch anyway? A little later. Around ten?"

"What for?," she asked, looking at him inquisitively.

"Well, you want to know the good things that I said about you, don't you?," he asked. She nodded. Draco turned and started to walk away. "See you at ten."

"See you…," she murmured. 

---

Ginny sat in the Gryffindor Common Room, trying to concentrate on the Herbology book in front of her, but finding it very difficult. She was extremely curious to know what Draco was going to tell her.

"Ew, Herbology. I never really liked that class," a lilting voice said suddenly, breaking Ginny out of her thoughts. She looked up to see Seamus sitting across the table from her, a grin, as always, on his handsome face. "_Doesn't he ever stop smiling_?," Ginny found herself wondering idly. It seemed no matter what, the boy had a grin on his face. It was rather frightening.

"Yeah, I'm not really a fan either," Ginny replied conversationally, trying to be polite. 

"So, Gin," Seamus murmured, leaning across the table towards her, presumably having gotten the 'casual hello' out of the way, "Do you want to sneak down to the kitchens and get something to eat a little later?"

Ginny bit her lip, trying to think of a good excuse. She realized that "_No, afraid I can't. I'm going to sneak out by myself and meet Draco Malfoy on the Quidditch pitch_," would not exactly hold up. Even if Seamus believed her, he'd tell Ron, who would try to forbid her from leaving the castle until she was sixty years old. That would be a definite hindrance on her plans. "Actually, Seamus…," she began, "I've got a load of homework and stuff to do. Maybe some other time though."

Seamus leaned back in his chair, looking visibly disappointed. "Oh…well, that's all right. Next time then?"

"Of course," Ginny said brightly. Seamus and his damn _next times_. Seamus sat there for a few more moments, babbling incessantly about something that had happened in Snape's class that morning. Ginny tried to look interested, but she spent most of her time sneaking glances over his shoulder at the clock over the mantle, waiting for it to near ten o'clock. It was only eight-thirty now, she realized with a small pang of discontent. 

Finally Seamus got up and left to join Dean on the other side of the room. Ginny reabsorbed herself in her homework, barely noticing as someone else sat across from her. She glanced up when she heard a small cough and saw Harry staring at her, his green eyes unusually somber. 

"Can I talk to you for a minute, Ginny?," he asked, almost shyly.

Ginny shrugged. "I suppose so. As long as you don't try to snog me again."

Harry looked shocked for a second and then saw the small grin crossing her face and laughed. "Oh, I promise I won't. I just wanted to make sure everything was all right between us." Ginny opened her mouth to reply, but Harry continued before she could say anything. "Look, I know I was a complete prick, but I only did it to protect you, Ginny. Malfoy is trouble and I was…just scared. I thought that he had sucked you into his little web of deceit."

"Little web of deceit?," Ginny repeated vaguely, raising her eyebrows. What was _wrong_ with Harry. Sure, Draco didn't like him. But that was no reason to make him out to be a Junior You-Know-Who.

Harry's cheeks reddened a bit as he realized that his words must have seemed a bit over dramatized. "Well, you know what I mean. I just don't want you to do something stupid."

Ginny closed her eyes tightly and tried to concentrate on something other than the dark-haired boy across from him. She had to ignore him, because to her very great surprise, he was making her extremely angry. Who was _he_ to judge Malfoy? It wasn't like Draco had done anything that Harry hadn't.

_"Ginny, what are you thinking?_," that annoying little voice pleaded. "_Sure, Draco isn't as bad as you thought he was. But that's no reason to get all…sappy. He's still a Malfoy."_

She finally opened her eyes again and looked across the table at Harry. "Thanks for the concern," she said in what she hoped was a calm and reasonable voice. "But everyone has to be a bit stupid sometimes."

She looked at the clock again. She could not wait until ten o'clock.

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A/N: So…hope y'all liked this chapter. It's starting to get sappy and I'm starting to get worried. *sigh* But oh well, I can't run from the clichés forever…

Oh, just in general, I can't really make the chapters much longer. I get worn out. Plus, I like them all to be around the same length. I'm big on symmetry. ;)

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Thank you sooooo much to everyone who reviewed: Baby, Tara_Potter_Malfoy, karen, mochadream, seekerpeeker, Luinthoron, emma, Jen, Kilmeny, UMIFIRELY15, Space Lion, The Dragon's Angel, Quentin Blake, karly, sadie (say-dee, Rubyjuls1722, Sayo, Miss. Charlet, Kerry, Ashleigh, Lonley tenshi, Pebble of Insanity, Red Magic Marker, Kitty, Missy, Rainbow Dreamer, stokely, hpangel, angel, Marisa, gohansfan, Ginny001, Kitycat87, Azalea, charismatic, Riauna, frananddragon, Molly, dreamofTF, Tryx, Silver Essence, KeeperOfTheMoon, Wind and Ashes, Nupil, Missfizz, fang-gurlie, Zuzu, Anya, Cassandra Sisenta or Krey-Zey, Dracos Gal, Mystique, Crystal, SeZzA, Sakura1287, December's Girl, and anyone that I may have missed. 

I'm sorry I didn't leave any comments, but I wanted to get this chapter out and I figured you'd want a new chapter more than a little message. 

If you have any questions/comments/suggestions/erm…anything else, don't hesitate to e-mail me at cassi0peia@hotmail.com or to instant message me at Cassi0peia on MSN messenger. I'm happy to hear from you.

Hope you enjoyed and please review, review, review!


	11. Chapter Eleven

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A/N: The requisite fluffy chapter. More to come, I'm sure. Let me know what you think! I heart reviews!

Chapter Eleven

Draco stood on the Quidditch pitch, watching as his teammates gathered up their things and carried them back to the castle. Trying to look as though he were doing something important, Draco busied himself with the box of Quidditch equipment.

"You coming, Malfoy?," Malcolm Baddock called over his shoulder, surveying the older boy with his customary suspicious gaze.

"Yeah, just wanted to make sure I have everything in order," Draco said. "I'll be up in a little while." 

Malcolm nodded and gave a grunt in reply as he turned and resumed his walk towards the castle. Draco waited until he was a mere silhouette on the far end of the pitch before he took out his pocket watch and glanced at it. It was five after ten. 

"I thought they were never going to leave," a voice said from behind him and Draco turned, startled to see Ginny walking out of the dark entranceway to the changing rooms. 

"Yeah, well…," he trailed off, suddenly not able to say anything. He hated this. What had happened to him? He used to be able to think of mean, sly comments, but lately…it just hadn't been working out. He would take one look at the little red-head and all of a sudden all of his vindictive thoughts would suddenly be driven from his head. Like the other day, for example. Her and that damn rose. They had been sitting there and when he had first looked at the rose it had indeed been yellow with a red tip. But he had glanced over at her and felt something inside him twinge…something had changed.

She had merely been sitting there, surveying him with curious eyes. Her red hair had been down, fanning out around her shoulders a few spare strands floating behind her in the light breeze. Her brown eyes had glinted in the bright moonlight and Draco had completely fallen. He never would have recognized it, never would have known it if it hadn't been for the rose. Right there, in his hands, it had turned pink. 

"So…," she trailed off, walking closer to him and sitting on top of the now closed box of Quidditch equipment. "What were you going to tell me?"

Draco looked around. He could still see the bulky forms of his fellow Slytherins up by the castle. "Let's go for a ride," he said out-of-the-blue.

Ginny looked hesitant but then nodded and stood up. "I don't have a broom," she pointed out.

Draco just rolled his eyes. "Don't be daft," he muttered. "You can ride on mine. You trust me enough, don't you?"  
She looked surprised at this question. "Of course I trust you, Draco."

He turned to keep her from seeing the small smile that crossed his face. He picked up his Accelerina Maxima and looked over at her. A second later, she was behind him, her arms wrapped tightly around his abdominal. He quickly kicked off and flew up, but only around for a few seconds before coming down to rest in one of the top boxes where the teachers and announcers usually sat. 

"I thought that we were going for a ride," Ginny said, looking at him curiously.

Draco shrugged. "Well, we did, didn't we?"

"Technically, I suppose," Ginny replied, a small laugh escaping her lips. She sat down on one of the wooden benches. "So…," she began. Draco's stomach twisted up. He had hoped that she would somehow, in the course of the last few minutes, forget what she had come there for. "What are these wonderful things that you said about me?"

"Hey, I never said they were _wonderful_ things," Draco drawled, smugly pointing out her error. "I said _good_ things." 

Ginny just rolled her eyes. "Draco…," she whined, looking dolefully up with him with her dark eyes. "It's late and I'm cold. As much as I'd love to stay out here debating grammar, it'll just have to wait until another time if you're going to be difficult."

Draco sighed realizing that he really had no way of getting out of it, short of her leaving, and he definitely didn't want that. "You just wanted to know what I said about you that was so good, right?"

Ginny shrugged, a small smile playing on her lips. "It never hurts to hear affirmation of my greatness."

"You Gryffindors," Draco grumbled. "So needy."

"You Slytherins," Ginny returned. "So terrible at changing the subject. On with it now."

Draco sighed again. "All I told Blaise was that you weren't a bad flyer. That you were actually quite good, with a little training. Much better than that sorry excuse of a Keeper your team has."

Ginny stuck her tongue out at him, not for the first time. "That 'sorry excuse of a keeper' is my brother, Draco."

"Hence my inclusion of him in comparing your flying skills," Draco said smugly. 

"So that's it?," Ginny asked, raising her eyebrows. "You made me meet you out here at ten o'clock at night so you could tell me that you told your friend that I was a better flyer than my brother? I mean, it's a compliment and all, but still…"

Draco didn't know what to say. He couldn't exactly tell her right then and there that he loved her. She'd slap him. Or kick him. Or perhaps even hex him. That wouldn't be fun. He still hadn't gotten over being covered in fungus back in fourth year. Damn Weasley's.

"I said that you were pretty smart for a Gryffindor," he continued. Ginny smiled slightly, but didn't look over at him and Draco noticed her shiver. He started to pull off his cloak, but paused. He didn't want to do the chivalrous thing. She might think that he liked her. "_Stupid Malfoy_," he thought to himself. "_Of course you don't like her…you love her."_

He yanked off his cloak and draped it over her shoulders. She looked up at him in surprise and then her face brightened in a larger smile. "Thank you," she whispered. "That was very sweet of you."

__

"Yeah, don't remind me," Draco mumbled.

Ginny clapped her hands shortly. "So? More good things about me! Back to it."

Draco couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "You're a trip, you know that?"  
"Better than the Wizardjuana?"

"Yeah, even better than the Wizar-," he began, laughing, but broke off when he realized what she had said. "Oh, so I guess you figured that out?"

"Obviously," she muttered. He didn't say anything and moment later he felt her hand wrap around his forearm in an almost comforting gesture. "Draco, don't worry about it."

"I don't do it anymore, you know," he said suddenly. Why was he bloody telling her this? She didn't look surprised though.

"I figured," she replied with a small shrug. "Not that it's any of my business." He fell silent once again. Ginny sighed and started to tap her fingers on his arm. "You know, you're not the total scoundrel you think you are."

Draco shrugged and glanced over at her. "Well, don't tell anyone, ok? I've got my rep to worry about."

Ginny just started laughing and a moment later, Draco joined her. It reminded him of a few days ago when they had been in the window seat behind the tapestry. He hated how she could always do that to him. But at the same time he absolutely adored it.

There was a long silence between them after they had finished laughing. Ginny let out a lengthy yawn and stood up. She shrugged Draco's cloak off of her shoulders and dropped it into his lap. "I better go to bed," she finally said. 

Draco nodded. "I'll fly you back down to the ground." He beckoned his broom and it flew into his hand. They both mounted it and a moment later were standing on the cold, hard ground. Draco flicked his wand at the box of Quidditch equipment and it floated lazily behind them as they made their way back up to the castle. 

"So, tomorrow's our last lesson," Draco said, trying to break the silence that surrounded them. 

Ginny nodded. "Yeah. Bet you're happy to be rid of me," she replied. 

Draco just shrugged. "Well, I must admit. It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "I'm glad to know that I'm not that much of a pariah."

They reached the castle and walked inside, their footsteps echoing quietly in the dark, barren room. Draco started towards the dungeon stairs, but stopped suddenly and looked over his shoulder. Ginny was almost at the foot of the stairs leading up to the second floor. "What? No kiss on the cheek?," he asked in a loud whisper.

Ginny turned to look at him, her face reddening slightly. "Erm…did you want one?," she asked hesitantly.

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt," Draco shrugged absently. He saw her eyes widen slowly in what he could only suppose could be complete surprise. She bit her lip and then walked over towards him. He stood completely still. He couldn't believe that she was actually going to do it. For the first time, Draco was grateful for her Gryffindor bravery.

He felt her hand on his shoulder and she stood on tiptoes, angling her head towards his cheek. At the very last second, just as her lips were about to graze his jawbone, he reached out, and in one deft moment cradled her jaw in his hand. He stared down at her and her brown eyes seemed to swim with uncertainty. "I think that this would be better," Draco said in an unnaturally husky voice and then, sucking up every bit of courage that he could, pressed his lips against hers in a soft, sweet, short kiss. 

He straightened up and opened his eyes, looking down at her. She was staring back at him and for a moment he was afraid that she was going to smack him. But she didn't. She simply smiled and removed her hand from his shoulder.

"Goodnight Draco," she whispered. The flush in her cheeks was starting to grow, but Draco realized with increasing bliss that she didn't look at all displeased.

"'Night, Ginny." He watched her climb the stairs and then turn the corner, then turned and started down the dungeon steps, suddenly feeling as though everything in the world was right.

---

Ginny turned the corner from the stairs blindly. She wanted to get back up to the tower, wanted to hide away in her room and pour all that she was feeling into her (non-evil) diary, but her legs were so weak that she could barely move. Not to mention that her head was spinning so quickly that she couldn't quite remember exactly _where_ Gryffindor tower was at that moment.

All that mattered, Ginny thought, was that Draco had kissed her. She had known that her feelings for him had changed, that she was starting to like him, but she hadn't realized just how much until just then. She sighed deeply and leaned up against the wall, closing her eyes as she remembered the brief, but electrifying kiss. It had been like heaven. Never had she ever considered that kissing someone could be like _that_.

She had been kissed before, of course. There was that disastrous kiss out in the courtyard with Harry and the shy ones from Neville back in her third year. She had kissed Colin on numerous occasions, even thought that he was maybe the one to get her mind off of Harry - but she realized now how wrong she had been. Despite it's brevity, that had been the kiss to end all kisses.

She was so caught up in these thoughts that when someone hidden in the shadows across the hall cleared their throat to get her attention, she didn't notice. However, when they walked into the light coming from a wall sconce and threw a shadow over her body, she looked up startled, hoping that it wasn't Filch.

"Seamus!," she gasped. She scrambled to her feet, looking at the sandy-haired boy. He was giving her an odd look, his sapphire blue eyes stony and somewhat unreadable. He wasn't smiling, for once. "What are you doing here?"

He held up his hands, showing her the bottle of butterbeer and candy that he was carrying. "Just came back from the kitchens. Remember? I asked you earlier if you wanted to come? You said you had homework." He was staring at her, his face a display of hurt. "You could have just said that you'd rather go make out with Malfoy."

Ginny felt as though someone had just kicked her in the gut. "Um…what do you mean?," she asked dumbly, hoping that "make out with Malfoy" was just a term some of the Gryffindor boys had come up with. Something like "jump in a pool of grindlow", or perhaps "have a cup of tea with You-Know-Who." Seamus merely rolled his eyes. Apparently not.  
"Ginny, I'm a bit dense sometimes, but I'm not _blind_," he said, a small, sad smile playing at the edges of his mouth. "I just wish that you had told me that you were with Malfoy before."

"I'm not with Malfoy!," she exclaimed adamantly. "I'm not! That was the first time-"

"Shhh," Seamus suddenly said, looking around wildly. He grabbed her by her shoulder and dragged her behind a wall-hanging into a tiny nook. Ginny looked at him in confusion. In the slight light she could see him lips move to form the most dreaded word at Hogwarts. Filch.

They sat with bated breath, waiting for the miserly old caretaker to amble past. "I know I heard something…hang them up by their toenails…," he intoned in his gravelly voice. Ginny's heart was pounding so hard that she was sure that Filch would be able to hear it, but to her utter and complete relief he didn't even seem to slow down. He simply passed by them. A moment later Seamus peeked out from behind the wall-hanging and gestured for her to follow him.

"All clear," he whispered. "We better get back to the Common Room though."

Ginny nodded. "Seamus, please don't-"

He interrupted her again. "Ginny, don't worry about it. This will stay between us." His face turned very serious, more serious than she had ever seen it. "Just know that Malfoy's a prat and he's not good enough for you. But I'm not your brother, nor am I your dad. I can't make your choices for you. Just be careful."

She stared at the Irish boy with a new level of respect. "Thank you, Seamus." It was all that she could manage. He just shrugged and led her back up to Gryffindor tower. 

They crept into the Common Room. As it was getting late and they had classes the next day, the room was nearly cleaned out and Ginny noticed with relief that her brother, Hermione, and Harry were nowhere in sight. The only students still in the room glanced up, but seemed not at all surprised to see Seamus sneaking in with food and a girl. 

Ginny bid Seamus goodnight and slowly made her way up the stairs to her dorm room. She opened the door and quietly made her way to her bed. Her fellow sixth-years were in bed and from the light snores and breaths she guessed that they were already asleep. She quickly changed into her pajamas and got into bed. 

She lay there, thinking about all that had happened that night. She couldn't help but have a stupid grin on her face. But it immediately faded when she remembered something. The rose. What about the person who had sent that? 

"_Lumos,_" she whispered. The tip of her wand suddenly glowed and she grabbed the box on her night stand and pulled the lid off, suddenly wanting to look at it again. She gasped at the image illuminated by her wand light.

The rose was red.

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Aauugghh! The clichés caught me! Oh well. It had to happen. *Sigh*

So, what did y'all think? Like it? Hate it? Loff it? (As Victor would say…). What on Earth should happen next? Let me know. Reviews are great!

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Much Thanks To:

Miss. Charlet, Stacca, Missfizz (Harry _is_ quite irksome.), Kylie, sCHEm, Dracos gal, KeaCerasiJade (That's a lot of reason. Glad you liked it!), Kitycat87, Imp, Jen, gohansfan, Rainbow Dreamer (Glad you like Blaise…she's sort of grown on me too), Isadora, hpangel (Sorry about the lack of comments last time!), August, SeZzA, Red Magic Marker, Pebble of Insanity, Kerry, Shyanne, dreamofTF, Dragon's Cat (soooo…you think Draco's hot?), frananddragon, Tigerlily Loamsdown, karen, KeeperOfTheMoon, charismatic (I want cheesecake! *pouts*), Rikku, Ariel Malfoy, 

angel, Lyss, Sakura1287 (crème-filled Draco? Hehehe…oh, I'm such a dork), Space Lion, Crystal, Jade Stellar, MAD-Clown, Cassandra Sisenta or Krey-Zey, Silver Essence (Eeek…here's your monkey!), & Jenn (That's me! Eeeeevil. Just call me Slytherilla..bwahaha).

  
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Review, Review, Review, Review, Review, Review, Review, Review…pretty please?


	12. Chapter Twelve

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A/N: Yes, I am updating on a Friday night. *Sigh* Unfortunately, I don't seem to be too skilled at walking and managed to sprain my ankle which means sitting around the house (booooo!) and codeine (YAY!). However, all the sitting around led me to me writing a longer than normal chapter and getting it out faaaaar sooner than I ever thought. 

Just a word of warning however: If you don't like disgustingly fluffiness, do not proceed. The fluff-bunnies are attacking and I am too weak to fight them off. Oh well, at least you get some Seamus this story…

Okay, so if you like it review, if you don't, review anyway. But whatever you do, press the little sorta-purple button and tell me what you think…I will loff you forever.

Chapter Twelve

The next day passed by in a blur for Ginny. She drifted through her classes, barely noticing when her cauldron exploded in Potions, when she tripped over Professor Flitwick leaving the Charms classroom, when Professor Binns spent ten minutes trying to get her attention in History of Magic. She was in a daze. And it was all because of Draco.

She couldn't believe how much she had liked kissing him, however brief it had been. It scared her. And then there was the matter of the rose. The feelings of whomever had sent it had changed. It was red. She had stayed up perusing her Herbology text until she had found the section on rose meanings. Red meant love - pure, passionate love. 

Ginny _knew_ that Draco hadn't sent her the rose - the very thought of that made her snort with laughter. As much as she had liked his kiss, she seriously doubted he was in _love_ with her. Even the _idea_ was absurd. But now she didn't know what to do. _Someone_ loved her, though she had no clue who. She ruminated over this as she sat at the dinner table that night, trying to look as though she was interested in the _fascinating_ conversation that Ron, Harry, and Hermione were having about Hagrid's latest dilemma. 

"You alright there?," a quiet voice suddenly hissed in her ear and she snapped to attention like she had been shot. She wasn't surprised in the least to see Seamus sitting next to her. His goofy, flirty smile was gone. It was, however, was replaced by a goofy, conspiring smile. "Ah, daydreaming about the devil incarnate, are we?"

"Seamus!," Ginny exclaimed, her cheeks blossoming a crimson color. She knew that he wasn't talking loudly enough for the Fabulous Three to hear him and that he was just joking, but she still felt a tiny flicker of panic. "They might _hear_ you."

Seamus looked over past her at the three who were still so caught up in their conversation that they wouldn't notice if a Veela began to dance naked in the bread basket in front of them. "Hmm…somehow I doubt that." Ginny scowled and pushed her fork around on her plate. Seamus leaned forward, his head on his hands and he looked at Ginny thoughtfully. "Not trying to be nosey, gin," he said more quietly, "but you're not planning on actually starting anything up with Malfoy, are you?"

Ginny flushed red. "Of course not!," she said adamantly. "I mean, could you imagine a more terribly matched couple?" She tried to sound lighthearted. "Malfoy and Weasley. Slytherin and Gryffindor. Rich and poor-"

"Cold-hearted devil's spawn and gorgeous red-headed angel?," Seamus suggested, cutting her off.

She stared at him in amazement. "You really don't give up, do you?"

"Bah, quitting's for…well, for quitters," Seamus answered dismissively. "Me? I'm not a quitter. I'm an Irishman." He grinned proudly.

Ginny snickered, but then her face turned serious. "I can't believe you're not treating me like a leper after what you saw last night."

Seamus merely shrugged. "I want to be on your good side when you come to your senses. Besides," he said in a logical sort of voice as he eyed the Slytherin table, "it could be worse. You could have been snogging Baddock." Ginny followed his gaze to the paranoid fourth-year boy who was currently building some sort of barrier around him using silverware and rolls. "He's lost it."

Ginny laughed and took a bite of her dinner. "Thank you for keeping quiet, Seamus," she said softly.

Seamus shrugged again. "Well, it pays to be nice. Like I said, when you're done with Malfoy you'll think 'Ah, Seamus, that kind bloke. He kept my sordid secret. And boy is he handsome too! I reckon he'd make a bloody good boyfriend'".

Ginny couldn't help but laugh again as she stood up to go to the common room to get ready for her final flying lesson. "Later, Seamus," she said, turning, her robes fluttering behind her as she left the Great Hall.

---

Draco fumed as he made his way back to the common room. He had happened to glance over at the Gryffindor table during dinner (alright, he had been staring - as usual), and he noticed The Irish Louse very blatantly flirting with Ginny. As if that hadn't been bad enough, she hadn't seemed to have been fighting him off. She had been _laughing_ at his pathetic jokes. Not that Draco knew what he was joking about - he had never really talked to the boy. Well, there was that one time in fifth year when The Irish Louse had told him to bugger off when Draco had been tormenting Longbottom and Draco had told him to go extract the shamrock from his arse, but that was the only occasion he could recall. 

Draco glowered around the common room as he entered, causing two first-years to scramble for cover behind a table. He went into the seventh-year boy's dormitory and quickly changed into his practice robes. He had calmed down somewhat and sat down on the bed to lace up his Quidditch boots. He couldn't believe it was their last lesson.

What was he going to do after today? He couldn't deny the fact that he loved her - every little bit of her red-headed being - but he certainly couldn't _admit _it to her. He could just imagine what she would say. Yeah, she had kissed him back the night before, but Draco couldn't keep himself from feeling that she had been holding back - almost as they she had hesitations…as though she was thinking of someone else. 

"Maybe you should tell her about the rose." 

Draco looked up and saw Blaise standing in the doorway to the room, her arms crossed across her chest. They hadn't really spoke since he had found her about to spill out all of his secrets to Ginny. "What do you want, Zabini?," he growled as he dug in his trunk for his broomsticks.

"Draco…," she trailed off, the cold edge off of her voice for once. "I'm sorry."

He looked up in surprise. He had never heard her say that in sincerity before. "You're what?"

"Sorry," she repeated, looking a bit pained. "I was just…frustrated. And after what you said to me…I don't know. I guess I was just hurt."

Draco nodded. "Yeah. I guess…I apologize for what I said. I wasn't really thinking - I forgot all about you and-"

"It's okay," Blaise said, holding up her hand to stop him. "I know. So," she said, the conflict between them immediately resolved, "like I was saying. You need to tell her."

"Why?," Draco asked, glancing at his pocket watch. As much as he wanted to hear Blaise's advice, he didn't want to be late. 

"She needs to know how you feel," Blaise shrugged. "If for no other reason than to drive that brother of hers up the wall." She paused. "If it was me, I would want to know someone loved me. Even if it was a 'loathed enemy'," she added under her breath.

Draco paused and looked at her strangely. "What?"

"Nothing," she muttered, getting up. She touched his arm lightly as she walked past and looked up at him, her green eyes boring into his gray ones. "Good luck."

---

Ginny sat stiffly on the frozen Quidditch pitch, waiting for Draco. For a few brief moments she thought that he many not show up. Perhaps he was so disgusted that he had kissed her the night before that he was planning on avoiding her for the rest of the term. This thought made her extremely sad.

She squinted in the dark towards the castle and was utterly relieved when she saw his tall silhouette striding towards her. She briefly recalled the night they had first begun their flying lessons…_The moonlight hit his aristocratic face and he looked down at her, his expression showing that he'd rather be anywhere but where he was at present."Well, let's get this over with," he grumbled, not even stopping to greet her. _

"Hey," he said now, breaking Ginny out of her memories, looking slightly unnerved as he stopped next to her. "Well…," he said, and his voice sounded nothing like it had before. "Let's get this over with." He extended a hand and Ginny gingerly took it and he heaved her to her feet. They stood like that, a few inches away from each other, their eyes locked together for a brief second. Then she let go of his hand, noticing that he heart was pounding like a wild hippogriff in her chest. She took the Nimbus 2001 from Draco and quickly mounted it, flying off into the evening sky. 

A moment later Draco had flown over in front of the Quidditch hoops, playing the role of Keeper as he tossed the Quaffle to her. Ginny spent the next hour trying to get the red ball past him into the hoops, doing a rather good job. They didn't speak, except for Draco pointing out things she could do better. Ginny tried to concentrate on what she was doing - after all, tryouts were in a mere four days and she wouldn't be able to practice before then - but her mind constantly kept drifting back to the kiss the previous night. All she wanted was to talk to Draco - and not about Quidditch.

At last Draco started to fly towards the ground, signaling that their practice was over. She reluctantly joined him and they both stood there awkwardly after Draco had replaced the Quaffle in the trunk of Quidditch equipment. "So…," he said uneasily, his voice trailing off. He looked at her solemnly in the eyes. "It wasn't so bad was it, Weasley?"

Ginny gulped, her stomach twisting in disappointment. "Oh…I'm Weasley again?," she asked, hoping she didn't sound completely crushed.

Draco looked surprised. "Well, our lessons are over. I assumed-"

"What? That I was just going to pretend you didn't exist," Ginny exclaimed, her frustration boiling over. "That nothing changed? That I still thought you were a stupid little arse and you still think that I'm-"

But she never did get to finish her sentence. Draco chose that exact moment to lean forward and silence her with his lips. She struggled against him for second, trying to ask him what was going on, trying to get him to tell her how he felt about her, but she realized _he was_. She hesitated and then wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her, pressing her lips harder against his. Everything flew out of her head. The rose. The Quidditch tryouts in a few days. The fact that under no circumstances were a Weasley and Malfoy supposed to be standing in the middle of a Quidditch pitch - or anywhere, really, for that matter - snogging like mad. None of those thoughts even crossed her mind. 

It seemed like an eternity had passed before Draco finally and quite reluctantly pulled his lips away from hers and Ginny sucked in a large breath, gasping for air. She looked up at him, her chocolate-brown eyes wide in astonishment. His eyes were calm and serious, but filled with an odd sort of sparkle that she had never seen there before. He rested his forehead gently against hers. 

"Does that answer your questions, Ginny?," he whispered.

"Erm…yes…," she stammered, still not believing what was happening. "I think."

Draco sighed and straightened up, biting his lip thoughtfully. He took her hand and then led her over to where the trunk of Quidditch equipment still sat. He sat down on it and pulled Ginny down next to him. "Then let me break it down for you," he said. Ginny stared at him, too stunned to say anything. He looked positively terrified, though he was trying hard to hide it. "I…erm…," he drifted off, as though he wasn't exactly sure what to say.

Ginny looked at him in concern, then something - a crazy thought, really - dawned on her. "Are..are you scared of me?" 

Draco seemed to consider this for a second and then shrugged. "I-I like you." 

Ginny's heart started to thump violently in her chest again. She didn't know what to say. Yes, it was just three simple words, but she knew how he had meant them - and the impact they had on her was enormous. "I like you too," she finally managed to squeak out. 

All at once, Draco seemed to relax enormously. She could actually see the fall of his shoulders as the stiffness left them. His lip curled into his customary smirk. "Yeah, I know," he finally muttered cockily. Ginny looked at him in surprise and then saw the smirk fade away to a real, genuine smile. She let out a small, nervous giggle and Draco once again hushed her by engulfing her lips with his. 

They were so wrapped up in their kiss that neither of them noticed the footsteps coming towards them, the heavy footfalls crunching in the frozen grass. They only broke apart when they heard someone clearing their throat loudly.

They jumped apart like someone had lit a Filibuster Firework between them and looked towards the source of the voice. Ginny felt an sheer sense of relief when she saw who it was.

"Seamus," she breathed in relief. "You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"And you nearly made me vomit," he said, shooting Draco a sick glance. "Anyway, I came to warn you. Your brother's looking for you."

Ginny stared at him, wide-eyed. "How come?"

"Well, erm…Ginny, did Harry kiss you recently?," Seamus asked, his brow furrowed. Ginny nodded, but didn't say anything. "Well, Ron found out somehow and he's going on about his baby sister breaking his best friend's heart." He glanced over at Draco. "You wipe that stupid smirk off your ugly face, Malfoy." Ginny looked over at Draco, who did indeed, look triumphant. He started to walk angrily towards Seamus, but Ginny grabbed the sleeve of his robe. 

"Draco…don't," she pleaded. To her surprise, he listened and stopped in his tracks, but continued to shoot daggers at Seamus with his eyes. 

Seamus just shook his head. "Listen, I really _hate_ to break up your little romantic moment, but I wanted to warn you before your brother found you. Are you coming with me or not?"

Ginny sighed. "Yeah, I guess I better." She turned to Draco. "Good night," she said quietly. "And thank you for the lessons."

Draco just nodded, his annoyed gaze still on the disgusted Irish boy standing a few feet away. "Good night," he muttered. She started to walk away from him, another pang of disappointment shooting through her, when she felt his hand on her sleeve and he pulled her back. She turned to look at him and he bent down, quick as a flash, and laid one more small kiss on her lips. 

Ginny wanted to stay there with him, but heard Seamus give off a snort of repulsion, so she reluctantly detached herself from the blonde Slytherin and followed Seamus off the Quidditch Pitch, leaving Draco alone.

"How did you know where I was?," Ginny asked as they entered the castle.

"Hermione," Seamus said stiffly. Apparently, he wasn't a happy camper. "She was trying to convince Ron to go look in the Owlery when I left. She's a good friend, you know."

"I know," Ginny murmured, following the tall sandy-haired boy up to the dormitories. "She is."  
---

A/N: So, what did you all think? Too fluffy? So sweet it gave you a toothache and I'm going to be stuck with all of your dental bills? Or overall just completely terrible? 

A ba-zillion thanks to my fantabulous reviewers:

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Baby (Yeah, she's dense, but if she figured it out already there wouldn't be much story left, would there?), **DreamofTF** (I loff Filch - "God, I miss the screaming!" was my favorite line from SS movie…hehe.), **Jen** (Sweetness! Hurrah!), **Sayo** (Swooning is gooooood…especially over Draco), **Crazyme89** (Glad you like it), **Brianna Darknight The Angel of Darkness** (Ginny/Draco is the best - just look in my favorites section and you'll find more stories that will turn you into one of us…bwahahaha), **Karly** (Yep….truuuuuue loff), **Excillian** (Seamus is just as cute as Draco, but he doesn't have that bad-boy charm…*grrrrrowl*. Oh, and I meant to go read your story, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. But I swear I WILL!), **Hpangel** (More d/g smoochies just for you…haha), **Red Magic Marker** (Fluff forever! Yay!), **Isadora** (Glad you liked it…), **Charismatic** (Yet again, I am EVIL…I'm starting to like being called evil…is that bad?), **Frananddragon** (most boys are babies…even everyone's favorite Slytherin…), **Miss. Charlet **(Thanks for the suggestion…however I like being evil and dragging everything out as long as humanly possible *wink*), **Kylie** (Yes, I can see how those two opposing desires can create a bit of a dilemma.), **Lonley tenshi **(Good little pun…hehehe), **Bunny** (Yay…I made it cute…), **Chimerical** (Quickest update I've ever done…is that good?), **Tuilindo** (I want one of those roses too…maybe I'll invent one…hmmm), **Pebble of Insanity **(Yes, accents are definitely goooood. I could sit around and listen to Sean Biggerstaff talk all day long…yum), **Edainme** (hehe…my Draco was mushy…that's funny for some reason), **Anya** (Isn't there like an author alert thing that tells you when a story is updated? Or something like that…hmmm…), **Riana** (Wonder no longer!), **Lady Godiva **(Oh, thanks for the idea of her asking him who sent it…I hadn't thought of that.), **Shyanne** (Ginny's a bit…dense…hehe), **Ace of Spades** (muchos gracias….hehe), **Rainbow Dreamer **(hehe…I'm on a sweet kick…must be the codeine), **Tigerlily Loamsdown **(The clichés have not only caught me, but have taken over me and beaten me to a pulp…oh well), **Wind and Ashes **(glad you like it), **Rebuky** (yay for sweetness), **Missy** (Red roses…hurrah!), **Chocolat Elf **(I'm sure Ron will have a very…erm…strong reaction), **Crystal** (Isn't cuteDraco! great?), **doublekiss **(is it still getting better? Or too fluffy?), **Missfizz **(Sadly, I agree - no Harry is sometimes a good thing), **Jade Stellar **(Sooooo….I take it you like fluff?), **Angel **(yay, I get my own rose!), **Schem** (I'm sorry…if there was a way to let you know when I updated, I would…let me know), **Sakura1287** (*takes a bow* I'm glad you liked Seamus last chapter. He sure is moody though. I've read the first couple of chapters of Water and Ashes, but I'm not up to date. I will be soon though..hehe), **Llewellyne 89 **(Glad you liked it), **KeeperOfTheMoon **(Don't worry, I'll find Seamus…someone),** Laura **(Suspense is the best), **Cassandra Sisenta or Krey-Zey **(Wizardjuana is bad for you! *slaps hand*), **Izzy **(Oh, good. I'm not the only one who stays up till the wee hours of the morning reading fan fic…that's a relief…hehe), **SeZzA** (unfortunately, Ginny will one day be voted "world's most dense person," to be closely followed by Ron), **Silver Essence **(Yay…gummi bears…you don't want _those_ back, do you?), & **Simply Bewitching 1 **(C'mon…if Ginny found out by herself, it wouldn't be half as fun as when Draco tell her…) If I missed anyone, I am really dreadfully sorry…e-mail me and yell at me for it if you wish.

**__**

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	13. Chapter Thirteen

A/N: 500 Reviews! Wow…I simply cannot believe it. I'm seriously floored…Now I feel like I'm failing all of you with this chapter which is basically a filler/transition/longer-than-average-though one to hold you over until the grand finale. Hope you enjoy it…if you don't…I'm on codeine…I feel no pain…bwahahaha….Review, pretty please?

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Chapter Thirteen 

The scene in the Gryffindor common room was not a pleasant one. Ron was pacing back and forth, his face extremely red. Hermione was following him back and forth, looking rather irritated, but worried at the same time as she tried to calm him down. Harry sat in one of the over-stuffed red chairs, his face buried in his hands. 

Ginny had just entered the room and was thankful that her brother hadn't noticed her yet as she tried to gauge his mood. "Harry, if you're upset, just admit it!," he was practically shrieking, looking at his best friend. Ginny sighed. Apparently his mood sucked.

"What's going on, Ron?," she asked in what she hoped was a calm tone.

Ron spun around on his heel and stalked towards her, looking very frightening indeed. "What is going on? _What _is going on?" He lowered his voice and looked at her very seriously. "Ginny, did you really kiss Harry?"

Ginny felt her cheeks turning slightly red. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see Harry looking at her, an embarrassed expression on his already crimson face. She squared her shoulders and tried to look defiant. "Well…sort of. Why?"

Ron looked at his younger sister as if she had suddenly sprouted another ear in the middle of her forehead. "Why? _Why_?"

Ginny sighed, feeling a bit annoyed. "Yes, Ron, why? Why do you care? Why does it matter?"

Ron glanced around, noticing the eyes of most of Gryffindor house on him. "Can we go out in the hallway to talk about this?"

Ginny crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. "No, Ron. I just woke the Fat Lady up to come in here. I'm not going to wake her up again so that you can yell at me. If you have something to say, say it now." Everyone in the common room was watching now. Ginny could see Seamus across the room, a look of concern on his face.

Ron looked a bit flabbergasted. While Ginny possessed the same Weasley stubbornness as he did, she rarely used it against him. He wasn't sure what to say. "Well…well, I never-," he choked.

"Never what?," Ginny asked, exasperated. "Ron, just what exactly is your bloody problem?"  
Ron's cheeks grew even darker. "My problem? You're the one who mooned after Harry for years and years and then when he finally kisses you, you run away from him."

Ginny just shook her head in disbelief. "How do you even know about that?"

Ron tried to look smug, but only succeeded in looking like a dolt. "I have my sources." He exchanged looks with a little fourth-year girl. "She _saw_ you kissing Harry and then running away from him."

Ginny rolled her eyes. _Note to self_, she thought, _remember to put a rather large snake in that girl's bed._ "Ron, I don't have a problem with what happened and neither does Harry. I very much doubt I broke his heart or whatever you were blabbing about before I got here." She lowered her voice so that only he could hear her. "So. Just. Bugger. Off."

"But…but…," Ron sputtered, apparently at a loss for words. Hermione walked over and grabbed Ron's arm, dragging him away from his annoyed sister and out the portrait hole, presumably to calm him down. Ginny shot her a look of gratitude and wondered, not for the first time, whether or not her brother was completely mad.

---

"…And the puffapods are required in order to…do what? Mr. Malfoy?"

Draco was vaguely aware of someone calling his name, though he couldn't quite place it. He was sitting at his table in the Potion's dungeon the next day, his chin resting in the palm of his hand in what he hoped appeared to be a thoughtful position, his quill poised on his parchment as though he was copying down notes. He was the utter picture of studious perfection. Mudblood Granger herself would have been proud, Draco mused to himself. But Draco wasn't listening to his greasy-haired (even the Slytherins admitted the man's hair was greasy, though they respected him a great deal) Potions professor drone on and on about Levitation elixirs. No, Draco was thinking very distinctly about a certain red-haired Gryffindor - and it certainly wasn't the one seated two rows behind him who was snickering with Potter over Draco's obvious lack of attention.

He wondered if what The Irish Louse had said the night before was true; was Weasley really angry at his sister for "breaking his best friend's heart"? Draco knew that he shouldn't have allowed the triumphant smile to cross his face the night before - hadn't realized until afterwards how it may have been perceived. But he couldn't help it. He loved Ginny - that much was very true - but having Potter all soppy and heartbroken over it was a definite bonus.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't realize that Snape had been addressing him until the tall, gangly professor was standing right over him, staring down at his prize pupil with a look of confusion and slight annoyance on his sallow face. His shadow fell over the blonde boy and Draco looked up, staring into his teacher's coal black eyes. 

"Erm…what?"

Snape looked utterly shocked. Draco just continued to stare up at him, realizing that the teacher must have asked him something. "I'm sorry," Draco continued, feeling a bit foolish, despite himself, "I didn't hear the question."

Snape nodded curtly. "What are the puffapods for in the Levitation potion, Mr. Malfoy?"

Draco quickly rattled off the answer and felt a tiny sense of satisfaction as Snape moved on and he heard the Gryffindors behind him hiss in annoyance about how Snape would have _surely_ taken loads of points off if _they_ had stopped paying attention in class.

Draco tore his thoughts away from the red-haired girl and tried to focus on his Potion, all the while sending smug looks at Potter, who was having trouble with his Potion, it seemed. The salamander he fed it to wasn't floating, but rather hopping around quite spastically. Draco watched in contentment as his own salamander floated lazily to the ceiling. 

"Very good, Mr. Malfoy," Snape said, passing him on his way to yell at Potter. "Ten points to Slytherin." Draco smiled smugly and sat down in his seat. Blaise, who had successfully floated her salamander as well, turned in her seat and looked at him questioningly.

"So…did you tell her?," she whispered.

Draco glanced over to make sure that Snape wasn't watching. He wouldn't take any points off, but Draco didn't want to be on his bad side. "Sort of," he replied. "I told her I liked her."

Blaise snorted and rolled her eyes. "Like her? Like her! Cold hearted Draco! Oh! Worse than cold hearted! Ashamed of being otherwise. Use those words again and I will leave the room this moment*."

Draco stared at her blankly. "What?"

Blaise sighed and lowered her voice even more. "Never mind," she hissed under her breath. "You _really_ need to read more."

Draco just shook his head and glanced at the magical clock on the wall. Only three more minutes. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. He really needed to do something. 

"Class dismissed except for Potter and Weasley," Snape said a couple of moments later as the bells chimed. Draco shot the two Gryffindor boys a self-satisfied look and walked out of the room. He usually waited for Blaise after Potions, but that day he had something else in mind. 

He reached the door to the Transfiguration class just as the fourth-year students started to pour out of it, chatting with each other about how they had gotten to turn baguettes into badgers that day. Draco saw the dark-haired boy he was looking for and stepped in front of him, staring down his nose in an intimidating manner.

They boy's dark eyes shot backwards and forwards nervously. "What do you want, Draco?," he asked, looking as though he expected to be hexed at any moment.

Draco smiled lazily. "Not much, Malcolm, little buddy," he said in an overly friendly manner. "Just need you to do a little favor for me."

Malcolm Baddock took a step backwards and looked as though he was seriously considering bolting off, but the good foot of height that Draco had on him seemed to keep him rooted to the spot. "Oh yeah? What?"

"The sixth-year Gryffindors have Transfiguration here in about ten minutes. I want you to give this-," he said, holding out a scroll of parchment, "- to Ginny Weasley. Don't say who it's from. Just give it to her."

Malcolm, as it was his nature, looked suspicious. "Why don't you just give it to her yourself?"

Draco rolled his gray eyes. "I have other things to do," he muttered. He glared down at the younger boy. "See that she gets this letter or you'll regret the day you were sorted into Slytherin house."

Malcolm nodded numbly, looking as though all of his worst nightmares were suddenly coming true as he took the bit of parchment from the older blonde. Draco turned on his heel and walked down the hallway, anticipating (and slightly nervous about) the events he had just set in motion.

---

Ginny rounded the corner to Transfiguration, scanning the hallway ahead of her for signs of her brother. He was the last person she wanted to see at that moment.

After Hermione had led Ron off to calm him down, Harry had spent a great deal of time apologizing - for what, Ginny wasn't quite sure - and by the time she was done being screamed at and apologized to, she had collapsed in bed and slept deeply.

"Excuse me," a unpleasant little voice said. Ginny turned around and was startled to see Hogwart's resident metal case, Malcolm Baddock, staring at her.

"Erm…yes?" 

"This is for you!" He dropped a sheet of parchment on the floor and stared at it as though expecting it to explode. Then, without another word, he turned and ambled away.

Ginny rolled her eyes and picked up the sheet of parchment. She unfolded it and scanned the contents. It was a brief and direct message:

G. -

Meet me after the Quidditch match tomorrow, behind the tapestry. Don't be late. 

- D. 

She had no doubt who the note was from - Draco, of course. She felt a tiny twinge of excitement; he had never sent her a note before. She looked down at the parchment again…something about it was vaguely familiar… 

"Miss Weasley, are you planning on kindly joining us for class or were you perhaps going to absorb the lecture through the wall?"

Ginny jumped in surprise. "Professor McGonagall! I'm sorry!," she exclaimed, rushing into the class. She sat down at the first desk she came to and as McGonagall began to lecture, unfolding the sheet of paper in her hand to look at it again. Where had she seen that handwriting before? 

---

The sun was shining brightly the next day as Ginny followed Hermione out onto the Quidditch pitch for the Slytherin - Ravenclaw game. The Gryffindors rarely went to the Quidditch matches unless they were the ones playing, but with the points going into the Quidditch cup finals so close, the entire school had turned up. Nearly everyone, save the Slytherins themselves, were waving the bronze and blue banners of Ravenclaw house. If Ravenclaw won, Slytherin would have no chance of winning the cup.

Ginny and Hermione both filed up the steps into a section filled predominantly with Ravenclaws. Parvati was there however, sitting with her sister, along with a couple of the girls in Ginny's year. They moved over to allow room for Ginny and Hermione and started talking excitedly about the match.

Ginny tried to listen to their conversation, but her thoughts kept distracting her from the excited giggles around her. She could see across the Quidditch pitch to the opening towards the Slytherin locker rooms. Draco was standing in the entranceway, his arms flailing around wildly. He seemed to be giving some sort of pep talk.

Ginny snorted at the thought of Draco giving an encouraging speech. She could just imagine it. "_You better win or I will send my father and his evil dementor friends after you. Now, play well!_" She laughed out loud, causing the girls around her to look at her curiously.

To her luck, loud male voices broke through the crowd before they could ask any questions. They all looked over to see Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville squeezing towards the crowd as they came up the bleachers to join them. Ginny scowled at her brother and shifted her gaze to Harry, who was behind him and gave her a small shrug. 

Harry sat down next to Ginny and smiled before turning his attention to the pitch before them. Ginny could feel Ron's eyes burning into the back of her head - surely he was wondering why she was sitting next to Harry. How could she _possibly _sit next to him without trying to snog him? Stupid brothers. A moment later the voice of Mayes Jordan, the younger brother of the Weasley twin's friend Lee, echoed through the stadium.

"Welcome, boys and girls, professors and slimy Potions Masters - ouch! - to this pivotal Quidditch match. Today we have Ravenclaw-," a loud cheer went up as the bleachers erupted in raucous cheers, "-and Slytherin!" There was a rush of boos from the crowd, except for the contingent of Slytherins across the field. 

"I give you the Ravenclaw team," Jordan cried, "Boot, Brocklehurst, Turpin, Cornfoot, Entwhistle, Li, and McDougal!" The crowd cheered once again and the Ravenclaws soared into the air and did a lap before landing back on the ground in front of Madam Hooch.

"And I also, quite regrettably - sorry, Professor - give you the Slytherin team." Jordan's voice lowered in a revolted tone as he announced the members of the Slytherin team who also rose into the air to do a lap before settling down.

Ginny's eyes were only on Draco however. He had a look of utter concentration on his face that she had never seen before as he shook hand with Mandy Brocklehurst, the captain of the Ravenclaw team. Madam Hooch blew her whistle and the teams were off. Ginny tuned out Jordan's rambunctious, sometimes demeaning, commentary and simply watched Draco fly around. He was high above the rest of the players, scanning the sky for the snitch, all the while shouting out directions to the players below him. The wind was whipping through his blonde tresses and he had a look of intense focus about him.

"You really like him, don't you?," a voice whispered in her ear and Ginny broke out of her trance, looking over at Hermione. 

"What?," she asked, feeling a bit scared. What exactly did Hermione know?

"You like him," Hermione repeated. Ginny looked around, hoping nobody else could hear the brown-haired girl. "Malfoy."

Ginny felt her cheeks tinge a dull red. "I do not," she muttered. "That's insane. I just think he's…not half bad. Not nearly as bad as you three make him out to be."

Hermione, to Ginny's surprise, didn't argue. She simply focused her eyes back on the game ahead of her. "Just be careful, Gin," she said quietly. "Just be careful."

Ginny was shocked. What was this? No words of protest, no yelling or screaming about how Malfoy was the worst thing in the world. She started to feel a bit worried. Had Hermione suddenly gone mad? She pondered this for a moment, staring at her friend, but Hermione seemed to be of quite a clear mind. Apparently not.

Ginny turned her attention back to the Quidditch match. She couldn't wait until it was over.

---

Next Chapter - The conclusion of the Quidditch match, the secret rendezvous behind the tapestry, and (bloody finally) the Quidditch try outs…Will Draco ever admit he gave Ginny the rose? Will Seamus bugger off? Will Ginny ever stop being completely dense? Find out on our next episode…eeek…sprained ankle = too many bad old soap operas. 

*The quote that Blaise uses comes from the movie version of Sense and Sensibility…when I was writing it just sort of popped into my head…All rights to that particular quote go to Jane Austen and Emma Thompson, I suppose, who wrote the screenplay.

Much thanks to my loooong list of fabulous reviewers…you are all awesome and if I could thank each of you individually, I would - unfortunately, that would mean you wouldn't get a new chapter until next June. But I appreciate it, really I do…enough of my babbling. Much thanks to: 

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Angel-Hiragizawa32, Missfizz, SeZzA, Cassandra Sistenta or Krey-Zey, Txt-eva, Xela, Mezz, Opal.star, Silver Essence, Bynkee, Schem, Angel, Reality, Chocolat elf, Baby-grassie, Tigerlily Loamsdown, Gohansfan, Fyrechild, Hollypop, Sabra, Red Magic Marker, Hpangel, Charismatic, Kristendotcom, Sakura1287, Karly, Ravyn Nyte, Isadora, Missy, Crystal, Brianna Darknight The Angel of Darkness, Zechs2062, Alexia Croft, Cgrwchick631, Slytherin-cool, Random Artemis, Miss. Charlet, Jenn, Rainbow Dreamer, Baby, VirtualFaerie, Excillian, My lost childe, Emo_Chick, Ashleigh, Kelly, Kerry, Kylie, Tuilindo, Stacca, KeeperOfTheMoon, Ginny001, Rebuky, Karen, JT Jones, Jadis Ionian, Jen, Simply Bewitching 1, DreamofTF, Lyss, Brittney, Rupretsmasweethart, Randa, Laura Wilson, Pebble of Insanity, Eraserhead, JS12, and Mocha Dream. 

In reply to some of your concerns - 

- Yes, Ginny is quite dense. That comes from growing up with a bunch of guys. Don't worry though, she'll get over it.

- Seamus is growing on me too, for all of you who loff him. There may very well be a very surprising ending…

- Draco _was _ a bit OOC in Chapter 12, but I couldn't help it…oh well.

- Yes, 'loathed enemy' is in reference to Romeo and Juliet…every good story needs a good, clichéd R+J quote. Blaise is turning into quite a literature aficionada, by the way.

- Thank you to everyone concerned about my stinking ankle…it hurts…*pouts*

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What do y'all think?

- Should Ginny follow her heart and pursue Draco, despite the trouble it may cause or should she take the safe route and go for good, safe Seamus?

Anyway, sorry for the non-fluff chapter. The next one will be a billion times better, I swear. **Review, review, review…**


	14. Chapter Fourteen

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A/N: *Sigh* I was so annoyed with myself for the last, extremely LAME chapter that I stayed up till 2 in the morning to finish this one. And I know I promised the Quidditch Try Outs this chapter, but…next chapter, I swear. Let me know what y'all think! Review, review, review!

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Chapter Fourteen

"Dammit Pritchard, pay attention!"

The fourth-year Keeper looked up at Draco, his face extremely apologetic. He had just missed his third consecutive Quaffle. The game had only been going on for ten minutes and the score was already thirty to zero in favor of the Ravenclaw team. Draco was starting to feel a bit panicked. 

The Quidditch Cup race was extremely close. Gryffindor, of course, was in the lead. Ravenclaw was only ten points ahead of Slytherin, who were holding up third place. Hufflepuff, the bunch of duffers, were obviously in fourth.

Draco saw a flash of gold out of the corner of his eye and whipped around, looking down. His heartbeat fell back down from his excited state when he realized that it was only the glint off of someone's prefect badge. Draco squinted and realized that it was coming from Mudblood Granger and her bloody enormous Head Girl brooch. He allowed himself to sneak a short glance around her and to his elation saw Ginny sitting by her. Potter was next to her, but she wasn't paying any attention to him. To Draco's satisfaction, she was staring up at him, though she didn't realize that he was staring right back. 

He suddenly realized that he wasn't paying any attention to the game around him and forced himself to turn his Accelerina Maxima around and focus on the match. He watched in satisfaction as his chasers finally scored a goal past the Ravenclaw Keeper. He could hear the Ravenclaw supporters boo wildly, but he just zoned them out. 

The game seemed to go on and on. The mid-morning sun that had been slanting onto the cold pitch was now a full-blast shock of light. Even in the coldness that was customary to the last day of February, such as today was, Draco was starting to feel extremely warm with the sun beating on him. He wanted this game over with as soon as possible. Draco hated to sweat. Another boo came from the crowd. The Slytherin chasers scored four more goals in quick succession, making the score fifty to twenty, in favor of Slytherin. If he were to catch the Snitch now, Slytherin would be in the finals. He started to fly around more swiftly, his eagle eyes scanning the pitch. He could feel the gaze of Cornfoot, the Ravenclaw seeker, on him, shadowing his every movement. 

A few moments later he saw it! Glimmering near the center hoop on the other end of the pitch was the elusive Golden Snitch. He thought for such a second about trying to divert Cornfoot, but decided against it. He knew that against his broom and flying skills, Cornfoot had no chance in a race. 

He leaned forward on his broom and zoomed forward, keeping the winged-ball in his line of vision. The cheers of the crowd started to ring in his ears as he neared the snitch, which suddenly shot away, causing Draco to turn sharply. Cornfoot, to Draco's complete surprise was directly behind him. In the course of all of his lessons with Ginny, he had failed to check out the other teams as thoroughly as he had in previous years. Cornfoot had obvious gotten much better

Draco urged his broom forward. The snitch was drawing closer and closer and Draco stretched his arm out…further…and further until - finally - it closed around the tiny gold ball. He could hear the cries of disappointment from the stands, but they were nearly overshadowed by the ecstatic screams of victory from the green and silver clad Slytherin supporters. Draco held the Snitch above him triumphantly and looked down as he soared around the stadium. 

He could see Pansy and Blaise jumping up and down, nearly beside themselves with ecstasy. Malcolm Baddock, for once, didn't look scared or paranoid as landed on the ground and jumped around excitedly. Draco's eyes drifted back over to where Ginny had been sitting. He grinned. She wasn't moping about like the rest of the students around her. She was standing up on the bleacher, clapping her hands admiringly and staring up at him. He met her eyes and dropped one eyelid in a wink, sure that she couldn't even see him. To his surprise, her grin grew even wider and she winked back at him. 

Draco could see Harry next to her, shooting her a confused glance and then glaring up at him, but Draco didn't care. He simply soared around the stadium again, doing a prolonged victory lap before landing on the ground. 

---

Ginny sighed impatiently and glanced down at her wristwatch, a plain silver faceplate attached to a thin string of brown leather tied around her wrist. The Quidditch match had ended nearly an hour ago. For someone who had made it a point to include 'Don't be late' in his note, Draco was certainly not punctual, at least not today.

She grinned as she remembered Draco winking at her during the Quidditch match. The look on his face had been classic; he had been so shocked that she had winked back. The thought made her giggle.

To occupy herself, Ginny pulled out the note Draco had sent her. It still hadn't occurred to her why the handwriting and parchment looked so familiar. She knew it shouldn't be a big deal - but for some reason she felt it was important. 

She suddenly heard the soft sound of footsteps in the room and she listened closely, hoping that it was Draco and not just some random first-year lost in the confusing maze of hallways. A moment later though, the tapestry was pushed aside to reveal Draco. He was still dressed in his Quidditch uniform. His broom was clutched in his hands and he slid onto the seat, leaning his back against the wall opposite her and just stared at her for a moment as he set the broom down next to him.

Ginny didn't know what to say to him, since he was staring at her so intently, so she just stared back. She had never really paid attention to him when he was in full Quidditch gear and she couldn't believe how utterly sexy he looked. The green robes, lined in silvery-gray, complemented his fair coloring and the dragon hide boots and gloves added the impression of toughness. She could see the familiar smirk he customarily wore pulling at the edges of his cheeks as she stared at him and she quickly moved her gaze away from him to the ceiling.

"So…," she began, starting to feel a bit awkward since he wasn't saying anything, "what did you want to see me about?"

She glanced over at him and was not at all surprised to find that he still had his gaze set on her. He didn't say anything for a moment, merely ran his tongue over his lips in a very subtle manner and laughed as Ginny's eyes widened. "Don't go having wicked thoughts now, Weasley," he drawled in typical Malfoy-manner.

She bit her lip, a bit hurt. "I thought you weren't going to call me that," she said quietly.

Draco looked a bit disappointed, than shrugged. "Well, in all honesty, I wanted you to blow up so I could kiss you again to get you quiet."

Ginny felt her cheeks growing a bit red at this admission. "You…what I mean is…erm…well, you know-," she began, but quickly fell silent when she realized she couldn't string together a coherent sentence. She took a deep breath and finally forced the words out. "I don't have to be yelling for you to kiss me," she finally said.

Draco raised his eyebrows. "You don't?" Ginny rolled her eyes. He knew that, the little wanker. He was toying with her.

"Of course not, stupid," she mumbled. She glared at him. "You're trying to get me mad again aren't you?" He didn't answer, only stared at her some more, a lazy grin on his face. She knew exactly what he was doing - but she couldn't help it as her temper took over. She tried very hard to keep her face blank, to keep the flush from rushing to her cheeks, to keep the angry sparks from flying from her eyes. She wanted him to bloody kiss her without pretense; she wanted him to kiss her simply because he wanted to.

"It's hard, isn't it, Weasley?," Draco said indolently, leaning forward on his knees until his face was only a few centimeters away from hers. One of his hands was on the wall behind her, the other was on the side of her face, his leather-bound fingers gently stroking her hairline. 

Ginny knew that she shouldn't give in to him, but this was pure _torture_. He seemed so different from one night to the next. Last night he had been all sweet, proclaiming that he liked her and tonight…well, tonight he was practically _killing_ her with his sexy aloofness. Damn Malfoys and their bloody charm.

"Stop it!," she roared. "If you're going to-," she was cut off as he lightly brushed his lips against hers. He pulled back and leaned back against the wall again, his eyes heavy-lidded as he stared at her. She pouted and leaned back. "You suck," she finally mumbled under her breath. 

Draco shrugged. "I have a present for you," he said. 

"A present? For what?," she asked, quite surprised, immediately forgetting about his cocky behavior.

He just shook his head. "Do I have to have a reason?  
"Hmm…a reason for Draco Malfoy to give Ginny Weasley a present? Yeah, I think that just may warrant an explanation," she said sarcastically. 

"I already told you I liked you," Draco said dismissively.

"Yeah, so?"  
"So, isn't that reason enough? Can't I give people presents to people simply because I like them?"

Ginny was silenced for a moment by this bit of logic. "I suppose."

"I suppose," Draco mimicked in a squeaky voice. He picked up the broomstick beside him and held it out towards her. "Here."

Ginny stared from the broomstick jutting out in front of her face back towards the blonde boy holding it out to her and back again. "Excuse me?"

Draco sighed impatiently. "Here! This is for you."

Ginny looked at it more closely and realized that it was the Nimbus 2001 that she had been practicing on for the last few weeks. "Draco…I can't take this!"

Draco looked perplexed. "Why not?"

"I just…can't! I mean…this is yours!," she tried to explain.

Draco shook his head. "_No_, it's _yours_. I didn't spend all that time turning you into an incredible Quidditch player just so you can waste it using that damn Shooting Star. Besides, I have three other broomsticks at home. And I'll probably get another one when I graduate."

Ginny didn't know what to say. He was giving her a bloody broomstick. And not just any broomstick, one that cost more Galleons than she had probably ever seen in her life. 

"I don't know what to say," she murmured

Draco raised his eyebrows. "Thank you is customary," he said airily.

Ginny felt extremely foolish. "Oh…yes…thank you, Draco," she muttered. "Thank you so much."

"Well," Draco said, stretching out and sliding his feet to the floor. "I need to get back to the common room. We have a bit of a celebration going on and I don't want to miss all the praise I'm going to get."

Ginny smiled slightly. "That was a great catch you made, you know. Good job."  
Draco just shrugged as though it was nothing. "Yeah, well, maybe if Potter doesn't cheat as always I'll be able to edge him out in the Quidditch finals."

Ginny wanted to argue that Harry didn't cheat and that there was no way that Slytherin, no matter how gorgeous their captain was, could beat Gryffindor, but she couldn't. She was too mesmerized by Draco, who was slowly leaning down towards her. 

His lips grazed hers again, just barely and then he straightened again and, giving her one last, devilish grin, pushed the tapestry aside and strode out of the room.

Ginny just sat there for a moment, trying to absorb what had just happened. Draco was back to his old tricks, it seemed. He was being sly and cunning and aloof - but at the same time, he was being unnervingly nice. _He must be a Gemini_, Ginny though, smiling slightly.

__

A few minutes later she made her way back up to Gryffindor tower. She had the broomstick with her and was trying to think of the best way to smuggle it into the common room, when the portrait hole opened and Parvati and Lavender Brown came spilling out, acting silly as always. 

"Hey Ginny," Parvati said, waving at the younger girl. "What are you doing in the hallway with a broomstick?"  
Ginny just shrugged and started towards the portrait hole, which had already closed back up while Parvati had been talking. "Hey, I heard you got a Mystique Rose," Lavender said suddenly, a note of innocent envy in her voice.

Ginny turned around and looked at her. "Where'd you hear that from?"

"Oh, Hermione," Lavender said with a shrug. "She just mentioned that you got one."

"Yeah, it's so romantic," Parvati said with a starry-eyed look in her eyes.

Lavender suddenly erupted into giggles again. "Hey, Parvati, remember when we were in Hogsmeade right before Valentine's Day and we saw Malfoy buying a Mystique Rose?" Parvati nodded and she burst into sniggers along with her friend. 

Ginny turned around to stare at the girls, opened mouthed. Draco had bought a Mystique Rose?

The girls continued to laugh and looked at Ginny's face. Parvati tried to explain: "We just thought it was funny, you know. Malfoy buying a rose for someone. I'd imagine the thing's gone black and turned to ash by now. I feel sorry for whatever poor girl got it."

Lavender smiled sheepishly. "Not completely sorry. Malfoy is rather hot."

Parvati sneered. "Yeah, but he's still a stinking Slytherin." The two girls shared yet another loud laugh. "Well, anyway," Parvati said. "See you later, Ginny."

"Later," Lavender echoed as the two girls made their way down the hall, oblivious to the look of shock on the petite red-head's face. 

It was all coming together now in Ginny's head - the rose, the handwriting, Draco's feelings…Draco had sent her the Mystique Rose…Draco was in love with her.

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Much thanks to wonderful people who reviewed in the short time between chapters:

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Chocolat Elf, Tuilindo, angel, karly, Cassandra Sistenta or Krey-Zey, missfizz, Aurora North, Crystal, Sakura1287, and gohansfan.

Next Chapter: The Quidditch Try Outs (for really this time, y'all…haha) and everything comes out in the open.

So…what did y'all think? What should Ginny do? Bwahahaha…

REVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEW


	15. Chapter Fifteen

A/N: This chapter was soooo hard to write…*sigh*. But I hope you all like it. Please review…it'll make this super-stressful day a little more cheerful…Happy reading…

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Chapter Fifteen

_"Draco, I know that the rose is from you," Ginny said, staring at the blonde boy in front of her. He looked at her blankly._

"What rose?"

She blinked, a bit confused. "The Mystique Rose! The one you sent me!"

He smirked. "Why would I ever send you a rose, little Weasel?"

"B-but…," she stammered at a loss for words. "You bought one! And you like me!"  
His smirk deepened. "Yeah, I like you. Like to torment you. I bought the rose for my girlfriend."

Ginny felt as though she were about to faint from shock and dejection. "Girlfriend?"  
"Yes. Millicent, my love, come over here for a second!"

~*~

Ginny shot up in her bed, sweat dripping down her face, eyes wide, trying to catch her breath. The sunlight poured through the windows making her eyes ache and she groaned and closed them again, pulling a pillow over her face as she laid back down in her bed. Needless to say, she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before.

__

The enormity of it was beginning to set in. Draco had sent the rose to her. How had she not realized it before? It wasn't that she hadn't considered it before; on many occasions she had wished it true. But the very idea of Draco Malfoy sending her a rose was absurd. Ginny would have been less shocked to find out the rose was from You-Know-Who. She felt stupid just thinking about the time she had giggled and fawned over the rose in front of him. She remembered kissing him and holding back because she had felt like it wasn't fair to whoever it was who loved her - and all along it had been him. All along it had been Draco.

She reluctantly took the pillow off of her face and looked around the circular room, realizing for the first time that all of her roommates were gone. She squinted at her watch, trying to decipher what time it was. She gasped. It was nearly two-thirty! The Quidditch Tryouts began in just half an hour. She scrambled out of her four-poster bed and hurriedly changed and twisted her hair back into a ponytail and sat down on her bed, breathless, to lace up her boots. There was something else irking her about today too…What was it? March first…March first.

"Bugger!," she exclaimed, her eyes widening. Not only were the trials that day, but it was bloody Ron's birthday too. She had been so distracted lately that she had completely forgotten. "What a day," she whimpered, collapsing on her bed once more.

A moment later she reluctantly sat up and glanced at her watch again. She only had fifteen minutes now to get down to the Quidditch pitch before the tryouts started. She grabbed the Nimbus 2001, not even stopping to think of a viable excuse for where she had gotten it, before she raced out of her dorm room, through the common room, and through the vast, endless halls of the school.

She reached the pitch just as Harry was starting to explain how the try outs would be run. She stopped at the end of the line of Gryffindors who were all eagerly listening to the older boy. 

"So, we're going to have all of those trying out for Chaser up against-," Harry was saying, but broke off when he saw Ginny standing there, her broom clutched in her hand. "Gin? Is there something wrong?"

She just smiled brightly at him, a bit pleased at his shocked expression. "Nothing at all Harry," she replied with shrug. "Just trying out like everyone else."

She could see her brother, who was standing next to Harry, gape at her. Even Madam Hooch, who was there to make sure that there was no cheating or such, gawked at her in surprise. "You don't know how to fly!," Ron exclaimed, looking at his baby sister as though she were insane. "You're terrified of flying!"

"No, Ronald, I'm not," Ginny said calmly. She smiled winningly. "Oh, by the way. Happy birthday."

"Thanks," he mumbled, looking distracted. "But Gin-"  
She help up her hand to stop him. "Ron, I'm trying out whether you like it or not."

Ron looked around him and then walked over to her leaning his head in close to hers. "Ginny," he hissed in a serious tone, "I'm not trying to say that you _can't _ try out, but I just don't want you embarrassing yourself."

Ginny raised her eyebrows calmly. "Who says that I'm going to embarrass myself?"  
Ron looked a bit confused. "I don't understand."

She patted his arm comfortingly. "I know. You don't understand a lot of things. That's okay. We can't all be geniuses."

Ron wrinkled his brow as if he were trying to decipher whether or not he had just been insulted. "Well…okay," he finally said. Ginny just rolled her eyes discreetly. He was acting like she had needed his permission to bloody try out for a Quidditch team. "But I don't want you saying that I didn't warn you," he added in a paternal sort of tone.

Ginny nodded. "Ron…it's okay. I'm fine."

Ron looked worried, but after a moment he just shrugged his shoulders helplessly and returned to his post beside Harry. Harry went back to his explanation. Each of the Gryffindors trying out for Chaser would go against Ron, the current Keeper. They would be judged on how well they executed their shots and also how accurate they were. Ginny glanced around at all of the nervous students around her. It was a cinch, she knew. Half of them looked too jumpy to even stay on a broomstick, much less ride one and make goals.

One-by-one Harry began calling forward the other people trying out. Being at the end of the long line, Ginny had a long time before she would be called, so she collapsed down onto the ground and lost herself in her thoughts as she stared around the Quidditch pitch, bored.

She squinted as she thought she saw a glint of silver over near the broom sheds. It was only momentary and Ginny realized that it was probably just a reflection of something from the lake, but she found herself thinking almost immediately of Draco. She sighed warily. She didn't know what she was going to say to him when she next saw him.

Yes, she liked him - a lot. She thought he was gorgeous, charming, and undeniably sexy. But on the other hand, he _was_ a Malfoy. He was a Slytherin. He could be cold and cruel and cunning and downright mean. He was everything that her mother had told her to stay away from. He was only bound to hurt her. Even if he did love her as the rose proclaimed.

"Ginny?," a voice suddenly said, breaking her daze. 

"Hmmm?," she murmured, looking up to see Harry looking down at her, his face a bit skeptical. 

"You're up," he said quietly, gesturing up towards the hoops. She could see Ron looking down at her, his face a mixture of worry and plain confusion

"Oh, great," she said, flashing Harry what she hoped looked like a confident smile. In reality, her stomach had just begun trashing around violently. She realized with a start that she hadn't even paid any attention to any of the other people trying out - she had no clue whether or not she was terrible in comparison to them. She smiled one more time at Harry and then mounted her broom and then began the ascent up towards the golden goal posts.

"You sure about this, Ginny?," Ron said worriedly.

Ginny didn't say anything, just nodded. Ron shrugged and then tossed her the Quaffle that was clutched in his hands. 

If Ginny had thought that her nerves would hinder her, she was wrong. As soon as she felt the soft leather of the red ball, all of Draco's instructions suddenly came back to her. She looped around the pitch a couple of times to get her bearings and then raced towards Ron, faked to one side and easily tossed the Quaffle into one of the hoops. Ron looked up at her as he swooped down to collect the ball, an expression of utter astonishment on his face. He didn't say anything though, only resumed his place and tossed the Quaffle back to her.

This time he was prepared; Ginny shot back and forth, waiting for him to be distracted. Ron seemed determined not to let her get the better of him. Ginny was glad for this - she would have hated making it on the team if she thought that her brother had gone easy on her. She suddenly pointed the nose of her broom down and dived towards the ground. Ron stayed in place and, quick as a flash, Ginny lunged back up and swerved past, hurling the Quaffle into the center hoop and missing Ron's ear by a centimeter.

The trial seemed to go on forever, but in the end, Ginny couldn't keep the smile off of her face. She had attempted a dozen shots towards the hoop and her brother had been able to block only two of them. After the last one went through the hoop, Ron grabbed the Quaffle again and nodded towards he ground.

"I don't know how you did it, Gin," he began, a bit out of breath at the effort he had just exerted, "but whoever has to play against you next year is bloody unlucky."

Ginny grinned even more brightly and flew down towards the ground, looking over at a very astonished Harry and a very impressed looking Madam Hooch.

"That was brilliant, Ginny," Emma Dobbs, a fourth year said adamantly, nodding his head.

"Yeah, where'd you learn that?," asked second-year boy who Ginny didn't know.

Ginny smiled slightly. "I just had a very good teacher," she said with a shrug. She settled back down on the ground again, watching Harry and Ron carefully as they conferred with Madam Hooch. They turned back to the crowd, Harry suddenly looking very official.

"Okay, I just wanted to thank you all for showing up," he said. "Unfortunately, though you all did brilliantly, we only have room for two new Chasers. So, erm…the new Chasers are Dobbs, Burke, and Weasley. If you're here to try out for Keeper, please line up over here and-."

But Ginny didn't hear any of the rest of what Harry was saying as she felt a sudden rush of excitement tear through her. Did he just say Weasley? She had…she had made the team? She gave out a great squeal and launched herself on the startled raven-haired boy, who was still talking to the next batch of Gryffindors trying out. He held her awkwardly, patting her back as though he were unsure what to do. "Congratulations, Ginny. You were great."

She pulled away from him and grinned and then hurled herself at Ron, who looked supremely surprised. "So…I take it you're not mad at me anymore?," he asked hesitantly.

She raised her head and looked at her brother. "You didn't go easy on me so that I'd make the team and forgive you, did you?," she whispered worriedly. 

Ron looked a bit shocked. "No! Ginny, you were brilliant! I'm just wondering," he said, lowering his voice, "Where did you learn all of that?"

Ginny bit her lip, wondering what to say. She had kept it from Ron all this time that she had been getting flying lessons from Draco - why bother telling him now? 

She shrugged and tried to look nonchalant. "I don't know. Practice makes perfect, I suppose."

He looked at her carefully. "Okay," he said after a moment. He glanced over at Harry. "Well, we have to go try out the people for Keeper. See you later."

Ginny nodded and slung her broom over her shoulder as she started back up the hill towards the school. She smiled at the person coming through the entrance to the Quidditch pitch: Seamus. 

"How'd it go?," he asked, stopping in front of her.

She grinned. "I made it!," she exclaimed.

Seamus let out a great whoop and swept her into a huge hug and swinging her around. "I'm proud of you! Even with that dirty little-," he paused and seemed to reconsider his words. "Well, even with Malfoy for a teacher you made it."

Ginny chose to ignore this comment - she didn't really want to think about Draco at that moment. "Well, I'm going to tell Hermione the good news," she said, pulling herself out of Seamus's embrace. "See you later."

He nodded and gave her one last smile before jogging over to where Harry and Ron were standing. 

Ginny started back up towards the castle. She had just walked out of the stadium, a smile playing on her lips, when she felt someone grab the back of her robes and pull her into the shadowy cranny between the broom shed and the entrance to the Hufflepuff locker rooms. 

"Let me go!," she exclaimed, struggling wildly. The person clapped a hand over her mouth and spun her around. She stared up into the eyes of the very person she had been trying to avoid thinking about all day - Draco Malfoy.

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A/N: Yeah, I know cliffies are bad…but they keep ya coming back for more…hehe…

Many very sincere thanks to my reviewers *deep breath*: Lady Rhiyana (Can you imagine a sappy Draco? That would be even scarier than his normal personality), Excillian (Gotta love the sexy Draco!), Draco-lover (I loff REVIEWREVIEWREVIEW's…hehe…There are other rose stories? Where?), Eraserhead (Eeek, don't get in trouble to read these stories! That would not be good!), Riauna, Mocha Dream (Or should I call you The Mocha Masta? Thanks for the extra long review. I had a good five minutes reading it…REALLY made me laugh. I love the convo with Draco…lol), sadie (hehe…your review made me really laugh for some reason), Baby (YOU'RE WELCOME!), Missy, MelissaAdams, stokely (please don't hurt me *cringes*), Ariel Malfoy, opal.star (damn me), Rikku, Chocolat Elf (Purple mutant cows? Well, thank heavens I avoided that fate…haha), Ginny001, Sakura1287 (I'm glad that everyone doesn't hate me for making her find out from Parvati and Lavender…Update Water and Ashes soon, punk *scowls*), Luinthoron (I'm so good there aren't even words for me…hehe), Silver Essence (I'm sorry…I will respond from now on…I promise!), Stacca (Malfoy shocked? Maybe…just maybe), MissFizz (if using unpredictable character means I have JK's blood in me…more unpredictable characters it is! Hehe), Angel-Hiragizawa31 (You're welcome and thank you), bumblepuppy (yay for codeine!), Riverchic1998 (oops…you didn't want a cliffy, did you? Please don't kill me), Tuilindo, Random Artemis (yeah, they were a plot device, but I had to let Ginny know SOME WAY…glad you like it and very glad to know you're not going to bash in Ginny's skull), Sayo, VirtualFaerie, hpangel (don't drool on the keyboard!), Simply Bewitching 1 (not too sorry at all…*stares off in a daze*), Space Lion (don't worry…no Seamus for Ginny…), Miss.Charlet (he's an annoying git? lol), fyrechild, Mint (yay! One of the few people who doesn't think the chapters are too short…), Imp, Crystal, Red Magic Marker, slytherin-cool, GinnyYvette, Drue, dreamofTF, karen (*sigh* I'd love to be tortured in such a way also), ladybug, Ace Of Spades, karly, Pebble of Insanity (ouch…did you poke me? Hehe), frananddragon (Gemini's are scary…*sticks out tongue and ducks as you throw pointy things at me*), Brianna Darknight The Angel of Darkness (He is a sexy bastard, isn't he?), Jade Stellar (Yay for fluff!), charismatic, and several other reviewers whose names would not show up on my computer for some odd reason, even though the thing said they were signed in…ff.net is more annoying that Seamus sometimes…Thanks for your reviews though!

Anyway, let me know what you think of this chapter! Should Ginny tell Draco that she knows or should she just let it go? What shall I do with Seamus…he just doesn't seem to want to disappear! Let me know what you think! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW


	16. Chapter Sixteen

A/N: First of all, much thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Secondly, thank you too everyone who pointed out the errors I made in the last chapter. Just ignore them. I'll go back and fix them eventually, but I'm afraid I'll erase something accidentally, so I'm going to wait on it. Anyway, let me know what you all think! Reviews are the bestest! Happy Reading!

**Chapter Sixteen**

Ginny stared up at Draco, who was looking down at her, his eyes glinting with a bit of amusement. They were in a narrow, muddy alleyway. The sunlight was blocked out completely except for a small beam that was glinting off of Draco's platinum hair.

"Damn, Weasley, you need to chill out," Draco said sternly, taking his hand off of her mouth.

"Well, excuse me," she said huffily, hoping that her voice gave away none of the nervousness that was surging in her. "Next time someone grabs me from behind I'll be sure to try and remember my manners." Draco snickered and she uncrossed her arms from across her chest where she had placed them in a defensive stance. "What were you doing anyway? Do you just hide out waiting to grab unsuspecting girls?"

Ginny thought that she might have been mistaken, but she could have sworn that she saw something that passed for hurt and confusion flicker in Draco's silvery eyes. "No, Weasley, actually I was waiting for you."

"Stop calling me _Weasley_," she hissed. "My name is-"

"Ginny," he said quickly, his smooth edge dropping. He furrowed his brow and stared at her, looking a bit concerned. "Ginny, I'm sorry. Is everything okay?"

She considered telling him right then and there that she knew that the Mystique Rose from him. But how was she supposed to bring it up? She couldn't very well pop out with, "Hey, by the way, thanks for the rose!" She knew that wouldn't go over very well - for his ego nor for her, especially if she were wrong, though she doubted that she was. 

"Ginny?," she heard him ask again, this time trying to disguise the concern in his voice. 

She looked up, toying with the twigs of the Nimbus 2001 that he had given her the day before. "Look," she began, "there are things that need to be said." He opened his mouth and started to say something, but she quickly cut him off. "But not here. Not in some muddy alleyway between buildings."

Draco looked a bit confused and unless Ginny was imagining it, a bit worried. "What's so important that it can't be said here and now?"

"Draco, will you please just trust me on this?," she asked in a pleading tone. "Please?"

He sighed a bit mournfully. "Okay, okay. I don't know why I'm letting you get away with manipulating me like this little girl," he said in a teasing tone, gently flicking her ear with his gloved finger, "but I am. Meet me later. Same place as last night. Same time."

Ginny smiled, feeling as though a bit of weight being lifted from her shoulders. "Thank you."

Draco just shrugged. "Yeah. Well, I better go. I have a Potions exam tomorrow." He reached forward and in a very un Draco-like move, simply wrapped her into a warm hug. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and sighed deeply. She kept wondering if it was worth it to put it all out there and risk his rejection, if by some odd chance he hadn't sent the rose, but every time she was close to him like this, she know that it was. It was definitely worth it.

"See you later," she mumbled, reluctantly pulling away. "I'll see you later."

---

Draco returned to the Slytherin common room, his mind a whirlwind of thoughts. He was extremely desperate to know what it was that Ginny wanted to talk to him about. He had never seen her look so serious before and he had a bad feeling about the way that their conversation was going to turn out.

He collapsed on one of the green velvet sofas and stared up at the beamed ceiling, trying to figure out what was so important that she wasn't able to tell him straight off.

There was only one thing that he thought it could be - and he hoped to Merlin that it wasn't. He feared Ginny had realized that the rose was from him.

It wasn't that he didn't want her to know how he felt about her, but he wanted to be the one to tell her. And besides that, she hadn't seemed completely overjoyed at whatever it was she was upset about. She had looked frightened and more than a bit nervous; fear wasn't exactly what he was aiming for when he had sent her the rose.

"Knut for your thoughts?"

Draco snapped out of his thoughts and looked around for the source of the voice. Blaise was standing in the doorway leading towards the girl's dorms. Her green eyes were concentrated on him in a look of deep concern. She crossed the room and sat down across from him in an overstuffed armchair. She slung her legs over one arm and rested her head in her palm and stared at him. "Care to tell an old friend what's bothering you?"

Draco just shrugged. Even though Blaise was one of his best friends - hell, she was probably one of the only real friends he had ever had - he still wasn't accustomed to opening up to her. It was understood that Slytherins liked to keep things to themselves; they only talked about things if times got really desperate. "I'm fine, Blaise," he finally mumbled.

"You sure?," she asked, raising her thin, dark eyebrows. "Because you don't look like you're fine. You look like you're completely miserable."

"What else is new?," he muttered. "It's the Slytherin way."

"_I'm_ not miserable," Blaise pointed out. "But we're not talking about me."

"Indeed."

"We're talking about you," she continued as though she hadn't heard his sarcastic comment. "What's wrong?"

"I think she knows," he finally said.

Blaise stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out just what he meant before gasping slightly. "Weasley? About the rose?" Draco nodded somberly. "Why do you think that she knows?"

"I went down to the pitch to see her try out and afterwards I grabbed her and sort of dragged her between the broom shed and the stadium-"

"You dragged her somewhere?," Blaise questioned, looking at him as though he were insane. "What are you, a bloody caveman?"

"Only when it's necessary," Draco shrugged in the most innocent manner he could manage. "Anyway, I could tell something was wrong and she said she couldn't talk to me about it there."

"Why not?"

"It was too muddy or something," Draco said, trying to remember if she had said anything else. Nope…too muddy had been about the extent of it. 

"Too muddy?," Blaise repeated, starting to laugh. "Those bloody Gryffindors are so pathetic. Muddy my arse." She continued to laugh uncontrollably, her normally pallid cheeks growing an unusual pink.

"As amusing as your little fit of hysteria is, Blaise," Draco drawled, growing impatient, "you asked me what was wrong and I told you. Now what do you suggest I do about it?"

Blaise took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. "I think you should beat her to the chase. Tell her it's from you before she tells you that she knows. At least then you'll have the upper hand." She slid out of her chair and stood up and pointed a manicured finger at him. "And _what _is the Slytherin motto?"

"Lie, cheat, steal and always have the upper hand," Draco replied automatically. "I guess as long as I avoid the first three during our conversation I should be alright." 

"I would hope so," Blaise agreed. She stretched her arms and then glanced at her watch. "I really have to go now, though. I'm studying with Pansy in the library. You want to come? I heard this Potions exam is going to be a killer."

"Nah," Draco retorted. "I think I'm going to study by myself."

Blaise nodded. "Okay, well see you later. And Draco?" He looked up at the brown-haired girl curiously. "Good luck."

She picked up her books which were lying on a nearby table and made her way out of the common room. Draco stared after her for a moment and then reabsorbed himself in his thoughts of what was to come.

---

Ginny sat in her own common room later that evening, pretending to be reading her Transfiguration text. Of course, she hadn't turned a page in the last hour, so the illusion wasn't really holding up, but Ginny wasn't think of this. She could only think of how she was going to tell Draco that she knew that the rose was from him.

She had considered many options. There was the direct one, consisting of her marching straight up to him and saying that she knew he sent the rose. Then there was the one where she got him to admit that he had sent it to her - she hadn't quite worked that one out completely, though she felt it would be the easiest. And of course, her favorite option: She could hide under the covers of her bed until the end of the semester in the hopes that she wouldn't have to ever confront Draco about it. Yes, plan three was sounding better with every rotation of the clock's minute hand.

She glanced up at the aforementioned clock and her stomach convulsed in nervousness. Only half an hour and she would be in the tiny alcove behind the tapestry, telling Draco that she knew he had sent her the rose.

"Is this seat taken?"

Ginny looked up and was not at all surprised to see Seamus staring down at her, his own Transfiguration book clasped in his hand. 

"Why aren't you in Hogsmeade?," she asked in surprise. Most of the other seventh-year Gryffindors had crept out of the castle earlier to celebrate Ron's birthday in the wizarding village. 

"I got caught sneaking out last week. If I get caught again I'll be in detention until I'm as old as Dumbledore," he replied. He sat down at the opposite end of the sofa. "Your book is upside down," he said quietly, his lips curling up in an amused smile.

Ginny glanced down and realized that indeed the pages were inverted. No wonder she hadn't been absorbing anything. She sheepishly turned the book right-side-up. "Oops," she mumbled.

Seamus laughed lightly. "I would have thought you'd be over there celebrating with them," he said, gesturing towards the group of students in one corner who were toasting each other with butterbeer, rejoicing at their new places on the Gryffindor team. They _had_ invited her to join them, but she had politely declined, choosing to sit alone with her upside-down book and her thoughts.

"Well, you know…important test coming up," she shrugged. 

"Yeah," Seamus said, nodding. "Now, what are you _really_ thinking about?"

"You don't want to hear it," she assured him. "I can assure you of that."

"You're probably right," he agreed nodding. There was a pause. "But try me anyway."

She stared over at him and he looked back at her, eyebrows raised, his book lying in his lap, forgotten. "It's about Draco," she warned him.

"I figured as much," he admitted. "But I'm your friend, aren't I? I want to be here for you, even if it does involve Mal-Ferret."

"Well…okay," Ginny finally said, not believing she was about to confide in Seamus about her feelings for Draco. "I think that Draco sent me the rose." Seamus just nodded, not looking in the least bit surprised. "And I'm going to talk to him later on tonight. I'm…I'm going to tell him that I know."

Seamus was silent for a moment. "You should," he said. "I don't want you to and I still think that Malfoy will never be good enough for you, but if you don't find out if it's from him, you're always going to wonder."

"That's what I've been thinking," Ginny agreed, sitting up a bit straighter. "I mean, I like Draco - I like him a lot." She tried to ignore the pained expression that crossed Seamus's face. "But I don't know if it's worth it. Can you imagine how my brother would react if I were to start anything up with Draco? He would never forgive me! I keep thinking I should talk to him about it. Maybe I should find out if he'd have a real problem with it." Seamus just snorted. Ginny sighed. "Yeah, I know. Stupid idea. I would just feel better if I had, you know…like, permission or something."

Seamus looked thoughtful. "You know, my mum has a saying. She always says it is easier to get forgiveness than permission." He grinned and leaned back. "Live by that one, I do."

"Your mum says that?," Ginny asked, sniggering. "No wonder you get in so much trouble."

Seamus shrugged and grinned slightly. "It's in my blood."

"So, that's your advice? Just to go for it and worry about the consequences later?," she asked.

He looked thoughtful. "Well, yes I suppose so. Ginny," he started, leaning forward and looking serious, "it's just life. Don't take it so seriously."

She nodded and sat back, her eyes drifting once again to the clock. "You're right, Seamus."  
"Don't worry so much," he said, nudging her. "My mum has another saying: If you worry you die and if you don't worry you die, so why worry?"

It was now a quarter until ten and Ginny realized if she didn't get moving, she would be late. She stood up and looked down at Seamus, smiling gratefully. "Thank you for listening, Seamus. And thank you for you advice." She looked thoughtful. "Or should I say thank you for your mum's advice? Anyway, thank you."

"You're welcome," he said quietly. She smiled once more and glancing once more around the room to make sure nobody was watching her, slipped out the portrait hole. "There's one more quote my mum always says," he murmured as the door closed. "You never miss the water till the well has run dry."

---

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A/N: 

Yes, I know - not much D/G action; but I wanted just a bit more Blaise and Seamus before everything comes out in the open, cause I'm thinking about, though not completely decided on having a…SEQUEL, featuring everyone's favorite Irish Louse and Slytherin Princess. What do y'all think? Good idea? Bad idea? Let me know what you think about that and especially what you think of the chapter! 

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Much thanks to all my wonderful reviewers: hpangel (rabid chipmunks??? Well, at least they aren't rabid seagulls…I'm terrified of seagulls…), **Sakura1287** (I'm sorry I called you a punk. But good on ya for updating W&A), **Kat**, **Beth**, **MeowMix**, **ryuu_chan2000**(stay tuned - there may be a sequel with that very pairing), **Erin Faith **(Thanks for the long review! Wow being compared to Cassandra Claire's stories; that's a huge compliment…Thank you *grins*), **august**, **Space Lion **(Aww…poor Seamus. But him flying into a jealous rage…hmm…that has possibilities…), **Random Artemis **(Loved the little dialogue! And that's totally me drooling…hehe), **Brianna Darknight **(No! I would most definitely NOT want that on my conscious…geez…), **Kitycat87**, **Tigerlily Loamsdown **(Seamus DOES have a hobby…stalking Ginny, of course), **Tuilindo **(Nebraska…Ron…same thing…haha), **DreamofTF**, **Redmeadow **(cause she can't afford one, of course…poor poor Weasleys), **Pebble of Insanity **(eeek…have you been reading the chapter outlines in my computer? You're scarily close…unless I change it…bwahaha), **Isadora**, **Canis Lupin **(If she wasn't so thick, she would have figured it out earlier - and where would the fun be in that? Hehe), **Jen**, **Mint**, **Crystal**, **Airna**, **frananddragon **(My mom, my best friend, and my boyfriend are actually Geminis. *sigh* It's like have two of each), **Silver Essence **(Be HAPPY!), **angel**, **Missy**, **Lady Megan **(Don't get yourself in trouble! LoL), **charismatic**, **Ravyn Nyte**, **SweetMe**, **Luinthoron**, & **Cassandra Sistenta **(You can stop bouncing now!).

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	17. Chapter Seventeen

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A/N: I'm sorry. I know it took me nine days to get this chapter out. Abysmal, I know. I'm really sorry. Ever since my ankle healed well enough for me to hobble around, I've had to work like super overtime to make up for when I couldn't walk at all. Anyway, here it is, the last chapter. I hope you all like it. Please read, review, and let me know what you thought…Happy Reading!

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Chapter Seventeen 

Ginny walked down the empty stone corridors, wrapping her coat more securely around her. The box holding the rose was in her pocket, slapping lightly against her leg as she walked. She felt more nervous than she ever had before in her life. Who knew that she could get this wrapped up in one guy - especially a Malfoy. 

"_Get a grip, Weasley," _she instructed herself. She was not going to let some boy shake her up like this. 

Her footsteps echoed faintly against the walls, but Ginny was so caught up in her musings that she wasn't even aware of the noise she was making. If fact, she wasn't aware of much of anything until she rounded the last corner before she reached the classroom where she was supposed to meet Draco. It was only then that she snapped back to reality, due to the wall to her left suddenly sliding open. A hunched figure, engulfed in the shadows, lumbered towards her. She couldn't see his face, but there was no mistaking that walk: It was Filch.

Ginny's eyes widened in shock. She wanted to run, but knew that it was already too late as she heard Filch begin to cackle in a mad sort of matter. 

For a moment, she just stared at the old, withered up man. His yellowish eyes were narrowed in an expression of utter contempt and his lip was curled up into a vindictive smirk. If she hadn't known that he was a squib, she would have insisted he had been a Slytherin. In Ginny's opinion, only Slytherins could smirk like that.

"Well, well, well…," Filch said, his lips stretching into a malicious grin. His yellowed, crooked teeth gleamed nastily in the fire-light. Ginny stared up at him fearfully. "To my office," he snarled.

Ginny wanted to argue, but from her experience with the old care-taker, knew that it was no use whatsoever. She reluctantly followed him down the hallway towards his office. He pushed the door open and sat down in the rickety old chair he gestured towards. She stared down at her shoes, wondering how badly he was going to punish her. He was rifling through the file cabinets on the other side of the room and she briefly considered making a break for it - but it would be no use. She'd most likely get in even more trouble.

"Please, Mr. Filch," she said in a pleading voice. "It won't ever happen again!"

He turned and looked at her down his long, crooked nose. "You think I don't know who you are?," he grumbled. "You and your older brothers have been the bane of my existence ever since I started working here." He turned back to the file cabinet and continued to search through it.

Ginny sighed and sank down on the chair. Draco was going to think she was standing him up. She knew that his pride was something he valued above most anything else. What was he going to think when she didn't show up?

She sat there for what seemed like an eternity, though she knew it was probably only a quarter of an hour, maximum. Filch had finally retrieved the sought after forms and was now loading up his quill with ink.

**SLAM!**

Ginny jumped as she heard the sound of a nearby door being thrown closed. Filch was startled as well and Ginny noticed with a dull sense of satisfaction that his quill had shaken so violently that flecks of midnight blue ink dotted his sallow face.

He didn't see her expression, however. His eyes were fixed on the door to the hallway.

"You stay here," he snapped, getting up and hurrying out of the room, no doubt to find another unfortunate student out of bed. 

Ginny sighed and glanced around the small, dark room. Her gaze rested on a pair of manacles hanging on the wall and she shuddered, very thankful that Dumbledore didn't allow Filch to use them.

"That's two tonight, my love," Filch's oily voice exclaimed and Ginny heard a loud mewl. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. Mrs. Norris, that blasted cat - Ginny was definitely a cat person, but _that _particular feline gave her a particular case of the creeps. 

"Just imagine," Filch was saying, " the amount of points you'll get taken off." He sounded ecstatic.

"You really are a miserable old loon, aren't you?," a familiar, drawling voice snapped. Ginny gasped and she immediately twisted around in her chair to stare into the hallway.

Filch walked back in, accompanied by a sauntering Mrs. Norris and a pissed off looking Draco Malfoy. He glanced over at her and his eyes widened in surprise.

Some of the anger that was obvious on his face seemed to fade away at the sight of her, Ginny was relieved to see. He collapsed onto the only other chair in the room - which just happened to be Filch's. 

Filch looked quite surprised. "What do you think you're doing, you stupid little boy? Get out of my chair!" 

Draco simply smirked. "Where are your manners? I believe I'm a guest. You _did _invite me to your office, after all."

Filch's nostrils flared. "Move!"

"Make me," Draco said icily, his gaze fixed on Filch. 

Filch seemed to sputter for words for a moment before finally turning and stomping over to his file cabinets. Draco glanced towards Ginny, who was gawking at his behavior. He smiled slightly and winked at her than resumed his glare at Filch's back.

Filch had retrieved his forms and had set them down on the table. He looked a bit uncomfortable, but leaned over with his quill and began to fill out the remainder of the form, nonetheless.

There was along silence as he did this. Draco continued to glare at Filch so that every time he looked up he was met by cold gray eyes. Filch finally signed his name to the paper with a flourish, putting one copy in his outbox and handing the other to Ginny, who glanced at it in curiosity.

Her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. "You're recommending expulsion and disembowelment?," she stuttered. "Disembowelment?"

"It means you're bowels are taken out," Draco offered helpfully, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"I _know_ that," she exclaimed. She scowled at Filch. "You're mad, you know that?"

"Get out of my sight," Filch growled, already hard at work on Draco's forms. Ginny rolled her eyes and started towards the doors. She heard a slight cough and looked back to see Draco staring at her.

"Wait for me," he mouthed.

She glanced towards Filch to make sure he hadn't seen Draco's message and nodded curtly. She walked out of the room and ducked behind a thick pillar, hoping Filch wouldn't find her again.

---

Draco waited in annoyed apprehension as Filch slowly filled out his report in his untidy scrawl. "Are you almost done?," he asked irritably. "I have things to attend to." Filch only glared at him, his face twisted into an agitated scowl. He didn't reply, however.

Draco sighed impatiently and leaned back in the chair. This whole being-captured-by-a-maniacal-caretaker thing was really throwing off his plans. He had taken Blaise's advice to heart. While he wasn't going to lie, cheat, or steal anything from Ginny, he _was_ certainly going to have the upper hand. He simply had to get her to admit she loved him before he would tell her how he felt. How hard could that be?

Filch finally signed Draco's paper and handed the form to him. "You can get out of my chair now," he said grouchily. Draco snatched the paper from his hand and glanced down at it. Filch had gone a step further with his recommendation than with Ginny's - he thought that Draco deserved a nice, painful beheading.

He walked into the hallway and looked around, searching for any sign of the red-head, but couldn't see her anywhere. He jumped, startled, as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Ginny behind him, a wicked smile on her face.

"You were scared," she stated.

"No, I wasn't," he lied, resisting the urge to stick his tongue out at her in an infantile manner. "I was just…surprised." She only smirked. He grabbed her hand and started to drag her down the hall. "It doesn't matter. Let's get out of here before that crazy bastard comes looking for us again."

Ginny nodded and ran to keep up with him. He jerked her around corners and up staircases until she was so disoriented that she had no idea where they were in the castle. He finally stopped in front of a painting of a two-headed goblin, who was leering at them unpleasantly.

"Pollywog," he muttered and the painting swung open, revealing a passageway. Ginny glanced at Draco, wondering where on Earth they could be, but he simply pulled her through the passageway and the portrait swung closed behind them.

"Where are we?," she asked, staring around the room. The room was circular, signifying that they were in one of the towers, though they were near the bottom of it. There was a long, rectangular table at one end with about two dozen chairs around it. The other half of the room was filled with gray and white sofas and armchairs and several smaller tables. The walls were adorned with shelves to the ceiling filled with books. There was a huge fireplace at one end, in which an huge fire was blazing.

"Prefect lounge," he said with a shrug. He collapsed onto one of the sofas and gestured for her to join them. Time to put Plan Get-Ginny-To-Admit-How-She-Felt into action. "So, what did you want to tell me?"

She was staring down at her hands, which she was wringing together in a somewhat nervous manner. A second later she looked up at him, biting her lip a bit apprehensively. "Actually, I wanted to ask you something."

"Bugger," Draco muttered under his voice. He was hoping she would have forgotten about that. "Are you sure?"

"Sure of what?," she asked, looking a little confused.

"Sure that you had to ask me something. I thought you said you had to tell me something," he said insistently.

She shook her head fervently. "No, I'm sure I have to ask you something."

"Oh," he mumbled. "Well, what was it?," he finally complied. He could always turn the question around on her, after all.

"Well, you erm…know that rose that I got for Valentine's Day?," she asked.

"Yes, I know all about it," Draco replied, nodding. "Is that all you needed to ask me? Good then!" He stood up and stretched languidly, hoping he could slip out of the room and avoid this topic for another day. 

Ginny reached up and frustration and yanked at the hem of his shirt, pulling him back down onto the sofa. "That wasn't the question, Draco."

"It wasn't?," he asked, dumbly.

"_No_!," she exclaimed. "I wanted to know if that rose was from you!"  
There was a long pause as he weighed his options. He could lie and say that it wasn't from him and that she was completely mad for even considering that it _could _be from him. Or he could tell the truth. "Do you _think_ I sent you that rose?," he asked carefully.

She rolled her eyes. "Obviously, I wouldn't be asking you if you did if I didn't think you may have." There was another long pause. "Would you just answer my question?"

"Which question was that?," he asked, making one last-ditch-effort to get out of this potentially embarrassing situation. 

Unfortunately, he had forgotten about the infamous Weasley temper. In less than a second, Ginny was on her feet and stomping towards the door, her cheeks blazing red. "Fine!," she exclaimed. "Just…bloody…play games with me, Draco! I'm trying to be serious for once and you won't even answer me. So _fine_!" Draco stared at her in surprise and immediately felt a twinge of guilt. He hadn't meant to make her angry - it was just that she was usually so passive, so calm. He wasn't counting on her flying off the handle like this.

"Ginny, wait!," he said, getting up and rushing towards her. She had stopped in front of the small passage, her arms crossed over her chest, tapping her foot in an agitated manner. "I'm sorry. I'm being an ass. Will you please come sit down?"

"Why should I?," she said and turned around, fixing Draco with her angry, liquid brown eyes. "So you can avoid my questions some more?" She shook her head and started to turn around.

"Ginny, I sent you the bloody rose, okay?," he finally blurted out, grabbing hold of her arm. She stared back at him, her eyes widening. 

"You did?"

He took hold of her other arm in his hand and pulled her level to him so that she was forced to look at him. "Yes, I did."

She blinked hard, as if trying to clear her mind. "Why?," she finally asked. 

Draco shrugged. "I was in Hogsmeade one day and I saw them in the flower store and I don't know…I just felt like it."

She hesitated for a second. "It's red, you know." 

He nodded. "Yeah, I know." There was a long silence. He could tell that she wanted desperately to ask him if he was really in love with her, but as bold as she could be, he knew that she never would. "I guess," he started slowly, "that it's good to know that I didn't waste my money one something that wouldn't work."

"Wouldn't work?," she asked vaguely and Draco could almost see the wheels turning in her head. "You mean…"

He took one of her hands in hers and lifted it up to his lips, his gaze never leaving hers as he gently brushed her fingers with gentle kiss. "I mean, I love you, Ginny."

If Draco had thought that Ginny looked shocked by him admitting that he had sent the rose, it was nothing to the expression on her face now. Her face had gone extremely pale, except for two circles of red at the tips of her cheekbones. Her mouth was slightly parted as if her jaw had literally fallen. "Are you sure?," she finally asked.

He started laughing at that and slid his arms around her comfortingly. "Yes, I'm sure," he said. 

"But…but you're Malfoy! You're not supposed to love me! You're not supposed to love anyone!"

"But I do," he said. 

"It doesn't make sense."  
Draco simply shrugged. "It doesn't have to make sense. I love you."  
She smiled slightly and tilted her head to the side to survey him. "Its not right, you know. Half the time I want to kill you."  
"Right. What about the other half?," he asked in a joking tone, though he sounded a bit concerned.  
Ginny smirked. "I want to kill myself for feeling what I feel."  
"Really," Draco asked, raising his eyebrows. "What is it that you feel?"   
Ginny bit her lip, looking thoughtful. "I really can't say."  
Draco raised his hand up to the side of her face and gently smoothed away a few strands of hair falling into her face. "Well then don't say. Show me."

Ginny's lips blossomed into a grin as she reached up and pulled Draco's face down towards hers in a kiss. This time, Draco could tell she wasn't holding back. He pulled her closer to him until there was absolutely no space in between them. 

Draco had never felt like he was feeling at that moment. He could think of nothing but the feel of Ginny's lips against his, her small hands running along his back, his own hands running through her silky red hair. He finally pulled away from her, breathless, and rested his forehead against hers.

"It's going to be hard, you know," he whispered.

"So hard," she agreed, nodding slightly.

"Is it worth it for you?," he asked sincerely.

Even if she hadn't answered him he would have known from the look in her eyes. "Absolutely," she replied, before pressing her lips against his again.

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~*~ FIN ~*~

A/N: Yes, that's it. It's come to an end. I am so grateful to all of you who reviewed for me - you have no clue how much I appreciated all of your kind words and advice. 

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Sabra, pinkangel335, Kerry, Ezmerelda, slytherin-cool, Jessica, beth, VuruNeno, Random Artemis (Eeek…scary thoughts…fun ideas for my sequel though…lol)**, Ravyn Nyte, PunkPrincess05, evilryokojesseandfiend, Mocha Dream **(LoL…Your reviews always crack me up…)**, Lady Megan, Ugo Plutanium Platipi, fallen~angel, kat, Excillian **(My grandparents are Irish…they talk a lot…they have a LOT of sayings…some of them are scary…these aren't…lol), **Imp, Anya, izzy, hpangel, Miss.Charlet, Emo_Chick **(Yes, I'm a girl..hehe), **txt-eva, stokely, Drue, sCHEm, sunshine angels, Draco-lover, ThereIsNoSpoon, Baby, ferggirl99, Isadora, gohansfan **(wow…thanks for all the…wrappers…)**, Jen, sadie, Kylie, Reven Eid, karen, Kerry, Erin Faith, Karly, Ace Of Spades, Adria, JT Jones, Butterflysky **(Ouch…you hit me *pouts*. I haven't had a chance to read your story yet, but I will try…I promise)**, Eraserhead, Korinna Myorin, Canis Lupin, Chocolat Elf **(Yay for toffee!), **Brianna Dark night **(Awww…well, at least you don't have any more cliffies to worry about), **Meeegz, depth, wolviesrogue, fyrechild **(Yes, I would certainly LOVE a pet Irishman), **KeeperOfTheMoon, Crystal, kellyanne, Jenn, Strawberry Dream, charismatic, Silver Essence **(I _did_ respond, silly)**, Red Magic Marker, Sakura1287, Wind and Ashes, Cassandra Sisenta, Missfizz **(well, my Seamus is blonde, but still…lol)**, Luinthoron, Lysaka, and Xela.**

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More Notes: 

I'm 99% sure that I'm going to write a sequel. It will be basically Blaise and Seamus, though I'm not 100% sure it will be them involved romantically. I think they make an interesting pairing though. We'll see. I've got to write it first. There will be, of course, some D/G in the background, but they won't be the predominant couple or whatever, because frankly, I'm bored with them. I wrote two stories with them and I'm ready for something different. Anyway, look out for that. I'll try to let y'all know.

Also, the last quote at the end Chapter Sixteen : "You never miss the water till the well has run dry." It basically means that you don't know what you have till it's gone. 

Oh well - I think I'm going to go rest my fingers. Thank you all for reading. Thank you for the reviews that made me laugh and think and all that other good stuff. You are all awesome. Let me know what you think. 

Adios for now,

Cassi0peia


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